Hot fountain pen

{{Short description|Small single-reed woodwind instrument}}

{{Infobox instrument

| name = Hot fountain pen

| names =

| image =

| caption =

| background = woodwind

| classification = {{hlist

| Aerophone

| Single-reed

}}

| hornbostel_sachs = 422.211.2

| hornbostel_sachs_desc = Single reed with cylindrical bore and fingerholes

| inventors =

| developed = 1920s

| range =

| pitch =

| timbre =

| volume =

| attack =

| decay =

| related = {{hlist

| chalumeau

| xaphoon

| octave clarinet

}}

| musicians = {{hlist

| Adrian Rollini

| Laurie Payne

}}

| builders = Keith Prowse & Co.

| articles =

}}

The hot fountain pen, or red-hot fountain pen, is a small keyless single-reed woodwind instrument similar to a xaphoon, popularised in the 1920s and 30s by jazz saxophonist Adrian Rollini.{{Cite Grove |title=Hot fountain pen |id=J208600 |date=2003 }} It was first introduced in jazz band The California Ramblers by saxophonist Jimmy Dorsey in the mid-1920s, where Rollini, a fellow band member, encountered and adopted it.{{sfn|van Delden|2020|p=120}} Rollini, who introduced several other instruments to jazz including the bass saxophone, couesnophone ("goofus") and vibraphone, named it from his friendship with Neil Waterman, a musician from the wealthy New York family that owned the Waterman Pen Company.{{sfn|van Delden|2020|p=168-169}}

The instrument Rollini performed on was pitched in E♭ and about 27 centimetres (10½ inches) in length. He made at least two models for sale, in original E♭ and a larger model in C.{{sfn|van Delden|2020|p=426}} These were made in ebonite by London instrument manufacturer Keith, Prowse & Co. and first advertised {{circa|1928}} in British Melody Maker magazine.{{Cite web |title=Pocket cornets, goofus, and hot fountain pens |last=Maund |first=Ian |date=2009 |publisher=Sandy Brown Jazz |url= http://www.sandybrownjazz.co.uk/forumpocketcornetsgoofus%26hotfountainpens.html |access-date=1 November 2024 }}

Only a small number of instruments were made up until the mid-20th century, featuring mainly on recordings by Rollini and jazz violinist Joe Venuti. Its only other significant proponent was English musician Laurie Payne.{{Cite Grove |last=Porter |first=Lewis |author-link=Lewis Porter |title=Clarinet (jazz) §5. Other clarinets |id=J088700 |date=2003 }} In museums, one instrument survives in the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, Oxford.{{Cite web |title=Red-hot fountain pen |author=Keith Prowse |author-link=Keith Prowse |date=2014 |orig-date=built mid-20th century |work=Bate Collection of Musical Instruments |publisher=University of Oxford |id=Accession: x4014 |url= https://www.bate.ox.ac.uk/files/checklist034pdf |access-date=1 November 2024 }}