 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Beanie
Date: 1999-02-23 01:53
My parents just came home from an antique show and with them, they brought an old clarinet for me. The clarient is a Boosey and Hawkes, made in England. From what I can see, everything is origional, the mouthpiece, ligature and case. The serial number on it is 311180 and it is all wood. the only problem with it is that a few pads need to be repaired. My parents bought it for a good price and I was wondering if anyone knows how old it may be and how much it costs new.
Thanks,
Beanie
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-02-23 02:20
Is it wood, metal, plastic, or something else?
Does it have a model name on it like "Edgeware" or "Fogware" or "1010" or something else?
Boosey and Hawkes did and still does make good clarinets however without knowing the model, it is not possible to tell whether it was a student, intermediate, or professional level instrument.
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Author: Bill Fogle
Date: 1999-02-23 15:00
Boosey & Hawkes no longer manufacture clarinets under their own name. They do, however, own the Buffet corporation, but that is only a business relationship.
I have a Boosey & Hawkes 1010, which is their best model. I used to own something called a "2-20."
Boosey & Hawkes clarinets are wonderful, exotic instruments whose time has come and gone. Basically, the instruments were made with huge bores (i.e., the "tube" is very, very wide compared to any other clarinet). This large bore requires at least two things: 1. a special mouthpiece (you have one, correct?) and 2. a lot more air from the musician.
Their tone quality is characteristic for large-bore instruments. Intonation is difficult, playing resistance is higher, and flexibility is infinitely greater. I've never been sure whether large bore instruments are supposed to have a lovelier tone or not.
Enjoy your clarinet! --Bill Fogle.
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Author: Lelia
Date: 1999-02-23 15:33
Bill Fogle wrote:
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[snip]
Boosey & Hawkes clarinets are wonderful, exotic instruments whose time has come and gone. Basically, the instruments were made with huge bores (i.e., the "tube" is very, very wide compared to any other clarinet). This large bore requires at least two things: 1. a special mouthpiece (you have one, correct?) and 2. a lot more air from the musician.
Their tone quality is characteristic for large-bore instruments. Intonation is difficult, playing resistance is higher, and flexibility is infinitely greater. I've never been sure whether large bore instruments are supposed to have a lovelier tone or not.
Enjoy your clarinet! --Bill Fogle.
I've never played a wide-bore clarinet, but on saxophones and recorders, a wide bore does make a difference in the tone. The wider bore gives a more resonant, "darker" quality. I know "darker" is a subjective thing, but what I mean by it is that you can hear the low partials quite distinctly, while the high partials are less prominent. It's the opposite of shrill, in other words. I prefer old (1920s and 1930s) wide-bore saxes, such as the Conn "Chus", and haven't found that the wide bore itself causes intonation trouble (even if it's a *really* big bore, as it is on my old Selmer alto). Since the whole concept and shape of the bore is different on clarinet than on sax, maybe the wide bore does create especially hard-to-solve intonation problems on clarinet. I'd be really curious to know whether anyone has manufactured a very wide-bore clarinet with excellent intonation. Has anyone even tried to do that?
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Author: Beanie
Date: 1999-02-23 19:28
Well, I've found out more about the clarinet my parents bought me. The model is Edgware, and I was mistaken, the serial is not 311180, it's 311158. Also, I don't know if this matters, but on the Bell and the top part of the body, it says:
Boosey
&
Hawkes
London
Edgware
On the mouthpiece, it says:
2
B&H
England
Also, as I said before, it is wood. Once again, I'm looking for how old it is and possibly how much it would be worth.
Thanks,
Beanie
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-02-23 23:41
Bill Fogle wrote:
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... Basically, the instruments were made with huge bores (i.e., the "tube" is very, very wide compared to any other clarinet). This large bore requires at least two things: 1. a special mouthpiece (you have one, correct?) and 2. a lot more air from the musician.
Their tone quality is characteristic for large-bore instruments. Intonation is difficult, playing resistance is higher, and flexibility is infinitely greater. I've never been sure whether large bore instruments are supposed to have a lovelier tone or not.
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Larger bore does not necessarily mean more blowing resistance. Actually it tends to be the other way around (narrow bore is more resistant). I had an old Pan American (very large bore) and found it very easy to blow. The intonation was poor and I had to work to stay in tune with the band but I don't know whether that was due to the bore size or the fact that it was a very old (perhaps over 60 years old) student grade instrument.
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Author: Hiroshi
Date: 1999-02-24 00:57
There used to be Boosey and Hawkes clarinet but they bought Buffet Crampon and they use Buffet name for clarinet.This may be the reason why Steve Cohen sticks to old Buffet Prestiges.I am interested what occurred in their quality.
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Author: Mark P.
Date: 1999-02-24 03:39
I bought an Edgeware in excellent physical condition but needing pads for $100 last fall. I believe your's dates from around 1975. Edgewares come up on eBay quite frequently and go from between 60-100 bucks. They seem to come mostly from the West coast.
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Author: Merry
Date: 1999-02-28 00:24
The Edgeware was the base model wooden instrument that B&H made. I have an Emperor which was one step up from the Edgeware which I played on for many years and was a fine instrument. It's serial number is 522827 and I purchased it new in 1984 so yours must be quite a bit older than that. I played next to a brilliant clarinet player when I was at High School that played an Edgeware and it sounded fantastic when he blew it.
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Author: Julie
Date: 1999-06-30 01:25
I have an antique wood Boosey and Hawkes with serial #155452. I know it's at least 35 years old because my dad gave it to me when I was a kid and it looked like an antique even back then. He said he go it from his dad in Germany. Does anyone have an idea of how old it really is and how much it is worth? I'll try to find the model name. Thanks!
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-06-30 02:24
Julie wrote:
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I have an antique wood Boosey and Hawkes with serial #155452. I know it's at least 35 years old because my dad gave it to me when I was a kid and it looked like an antique even back then. He said he go it from his dad in Germany. Does anyone have an idea of how old it really is and how much it is worth? I'll try to find the model name. Thanks!
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http://www.musictrader.com/serialnos.html
According to the list at this site, that serial number places it in about 1975. Are you sure about the serial number?
Basically any clarinet under 60 years old is competing in the used clarinet market not the antique market. Therefore its value will depend strictly on condition and what level of instrument it originally was. On the eBay auction, their "Fogware" and "Edgeware" models end up at between $50 and $100. The professional models that they made don't show up too often on eBay. The one or two that I have seen have gone for a couple of hundred dollars. This is because everyone is looking for the names that are popular today (Buffet, Leblanc, and Selmer).
Also Boosey and Hawkes was formed in 1934 by a merger between two large London makers (Boosey & Co. and Hawkes & Sons). So even if it is one of their oldest instruments, it still wouldn't be an antique.
However if it has one of the parent companies names rather than specifically "Boosey & Hawkes," then it might be old enough to be an antique as the parent firms were both founded more than 100 years ago.
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Author: jim
Date: 2002-11-15 01:40
We have a B&H ser#44451, Edgware, likely born in 1943-45. We recently had it reworked, corks and all, it would appear to be made of Blackwood, however, other than the repair shop telling us that it is ia B flat clarinet, we have no idea what model it is. Where do you find some reference to its actual quality? The keys would appear to be a non-pot metal.
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