Klarinet Archive - Posting 001521.txt from 1998/05

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: [kl] Two unusual clarinets
Date: Sat, 30 May 1998 14:31:23 -0400

A couple of unusual clarinets showed up this week in the music store where
I teach. Neither the owner nor I had never seen anything quite like either
one, and he doesn't know whether they're saleable, or if so how to price them.

One, I think, is a real oddity. It's an Albert system C Soprano, wood, and
absolutely without a maker's name or a serial number. Its mechanism is
excellent, and its body in good condition except that the barrel has a
small crack starting. It's quite playable, but re-padding would be a good
idea. Its leather case is like nothing I've ever seen, a sort of big
holster or field glasses case, where the lower section and bell, and the
upper section, barrel and mouthpiece stow away. It would be fun to have a
leather crafter or a saddle maker use it to make an exact duplicate. Tron
the case and the overall look of the instrument, it's not extremely old,
and I'd guess its provenance was French.

The other one is a CG Conn Ltd of Elkhart metal Bb soprano, a two-piece
instrument with a sort of tuning barrel, a feature that most old metal
clarinets I've seen didn't have. My first clarinet was metal (we called
them "tin" when I was in high school) and I had to pull the mouthpiece out
to tune. This specimen needs a mouthpiece, a case, cleaning. repadding and
a couple of springs, but it's completely undamaged, and my impression is
that it's potentially a superior instrument, for what it is. I'd buy it
myself in a minute for an all-weather clarinet, but I haven't quite paid
off a vintage Conn alto sax I fancied. How old this clarinet might be, I
don't know, but my guess is in the 1920s or early 1930s. The serial number
is 3230005L

Can anyone tell me whether either of these oddballs is rare enough to be
interesting, and in any case, how much either might be worth, as is,
restored, or both?

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