About Ponte Oboes . . .

A short history of Charlie Ponte, mixed with my companies history can be viewed at:

http://www.charlesmusic.com/cgi-bin/theo?action=display_page&page=about_us

The oboes with a Ponte brand come from European maker Chiassirini, who made oboes and other instruments with no brand on them, and sent them to companies that wanted to finish the instruments on their own. In general, these instruments would arrive as three body parts and a bag of keys. The dealer would finish the bore, attach the keywork and tune the instrument as they saw fit.

Three models were imported by Ponte. They were called Italy, France and Germany. You'll find one of these names marked in small non-serif print just above the thumb rest or at the bottom of the second joint on the rear side.

A mark of "Italy" indicates the lightest of the three, both wood density and silver plating. They tend to be thinner in sound and while a bit less robust in construction than the other two models, has a long life span and sweet sound.

The mark "France" means that the plating was middle of the road and the body was closest to the similarly aged Loree models. Good solid instruments with a slightly better chance of being in tune than the Italy models.

"Germany" and the most robust and sought after model. These have a heavier body stock, thicker plating, more strongly manufactured key system and a big, rich, dense tone, similar to Gordet and other huge robust oboes. They have an extremely long life span, and, from my perspective as a repairman, are the easiest and most responsive to work on.
All of these models were made at a single plant, which was at various times in France, Italy and then the US. The names do not indicate country of origin.

Chiassirini was apparently a cousin of Charlie Ponte, and they did lots of business over the years, from about 1950 through the early 1980's, when Chassiarini stopped production, and Ponte sold me his business.