 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: rbell72
Date: 2000-08-22 13:46
I saw a discussion about this in the archives but one question remained unanswered.
Does anybody know how to date these things? They have no serial numbers!
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Author: Dee
Date: 2000-08-25 17:01
To reliably date a clarinet requires manufacturer, model, serial number and a list of the manufacturer's serial numbers for the various models. This information is often not available for companies that are no longer in business. It is even sometimes hard to get for the major makers on their older models as they did not keep this information.
On something like this, all you can do is bracket it with the time that the maker was in business under that specific name if that is known (i.e. listed in the New Langwell Index).
If the key system is unique, it can help narrow the time but that generally won't help a great deal. Afterall both the Albert and Boehm systems have been available since the 1840s. Yet simpler systems continued to be available for several decades thereafter.
Pitch standards help only a little. They varied not only in time but from place to place. For example, modern pitch (Low Pitch) would indicate that it is probably within the last 115 years or so. Yet High Pitch was still produced and in demand for several decades thereafter depending on the location. And there were other pitch standards besides these two.
The wrap around register key seems to have been in vogue from roughly 1890 to roughly 1930. Yet many makers used straight octave keys throughout this time also.
Bottom line, if you have a standard Boehm clarinet with no information other than the maker, there's no way to pin down a time frame other than the time that the company was in business. In some cases, even that information is not available.
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