Basset Horn (Ital. cornu di bassetto), the richest and softest of all wind-instruments, invented in Passau in 1770, improved by Lotz in Presburg in 1782. It is similar to a clarinet in tone and fingering, but has additional low keys, extending its compass to C in the bass clef, sounding, as the instrument is tuned in F, the F below.
Basset Horn
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 1: A to Beaufort, p. 783
Source scan(s): p. 0810