The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Riviere & Hawkes

Author: jo.clarinet
Date: 2003-12-30 20:15

I've just been browsing on ebay and have seen a Riviere & Hawkes clarinet, which I've never heard of before (I know about Hawkes, and Boosey & Hawkes, but not this one!). I did a search but got no hits. The instrument looks very old! Apparently it also has a stamp on it saying 'J Wallis, 135 Euston Road, London' - I presume this is the name of the retailer.
Does anyone have any information about this type of clarinet? [huh]

Joanna Brown

Reply To Message

Re: Riviere & Hawkes

Author: David
Date: 2003-12-31 15:28

It might be a bit ancient, and therefore more likely to be high-pitched.

I found

http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:dpI7x-Y-LBUJ:jerselmer.free.fr/clarinette/clar8/clar8.html+riviere+hawkes+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

on Google, and searching on Riviere Hawkes also turns up a Tenor Horn in the Leicester University collection and a Double Bass in contrabass.com, so it would look to be a collaboration around the turn of the (last) century between Hawkes & Son and a French (no, really) concern.

Now whether Riviere was in turn a manufacturer or distributer itself, I don't know. I just feel that for the times, and the French tendancy to specialise and have a workshop mentality, a manufacturer of brass, woodwind and stringed instruments is a bit big. Then again, they might have changed names from Riviere to something a little more familiar.

Rule of thumb comes in here. If it's old, and nobody remembers it, it's probably for a good reason. Old, obscure, but with a cult following (my Dolnets) is OK. Or so I keep telling myself...

Happy New Year

Reply To Message

Avail. Forums | Threaded View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

The Clarinet Pages

For Sale
Put your ads for items you'd like to sell here. Free! Please, no more than two at a time - ads removed after two weeks.