Klarinet Archive - Posting 000200.txt from 2005/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Interesting ebay item
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 08:14:29 -0500


Dan Leeson wrote,
>Interesting five piece Selmer metal clarinet.
>Ebay number 7305391344. I don't remember
>ever seeing a metal clarinet that was not a one
>piece item.

I own a very early C. G. Conn Bb, metal, double-walled, made in 1895-6.
Unfortunately, as it's missing two keys, it's unplayable, but it's an
interesting curiosity.

Bill Hausmann wrote,
>>My Walter W. Mueller (later Penzel-Mueller, I believe)
>>"The Empire State" metal clarinet, an intermediate-priced
>>one at best, is in five pieces, but it is still a relatively rare
>>phenomenon. I think ALL Selmer Paris metal clarinets
>>were made that way, though.

All 17 of the metal clarinets (different types of Master Model and Bundy,
in both Albert and Boehm systems) sold in the1928 Selmer catalogue come
apart at the center and bell joints. However, sometime between 1928 and
the 1932 catalogue (which I may have called the 1931 catalogue in previous
messages; it was published in November, 1931), Selmer introduced some
cheaper metal clarinet models with one-piece bodies.

My Selmer "Barbier" (Paris) model 1310M Bb soprano clarinet (17 keys, 6
rings), silver-plated over nickel silver, is student quality, but has a
center joint and a bell joint. For all that it was an inexpensive
instrument at the time ($85 on p. 29 in the 1932 catalogue), it's nicely
made and plays pretty well. A cheaper Barbier, also silver-plated over
nickel silver (17 keys, 6 rings), model 1308M, sold for $65 on p. 29 with
the specification, "Does not come apart at center or bell joint."

By the 1935 catalogue, the model 1308M had been discontinued. The 1935
catalogue lists, on p. 19, the Barbier model 1310M, in nickel silver with
silver plate (17 keys, 6 rings), with the specification, "Does not come
apart at center or bell joint...." That model of Barbier sold for $85, the
same as before, but for the same price on the same model number, the
customer no longer got the center and bell joints. On the same page,
Selmer's bottom of the line at the time, the Raymond model 1410M, nickel
silver with silver plate (17 keys, 6 rings), is listed with the
specification, "Does not come apart at middle point [sic.] or at bell."
The 1935 retail price for the Raymond was $42.50.

Lelia Loban
Are you watching Big Brother?

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