Eb Keyed Bugle by Isaac Fiske

This Eb keyed bugle, in the collection of Wayne Collier, is one of only two known to exist today. It was made between 1843 and about 1848 by Isaac Fiske in Worchester, Massechusetts. Made of copper with ten nickel silver keys and other trim, it very closely follows the design first made by Henry Sibley in about 1836 and then by Graves & Co. E.G. Wright and others in the early 1840s.

It is surprising that only three instruments exist today that were made during the first 5 years of Fiske’s production, a post horn in addition to the two keyed bugles. Dr. Robert Eliason, in his “Early American Brass Makers” reports that Fiske was sharing a shop with a sash and blind maker, so he may also have been occupied as a woodworker to make ends meet.