 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: red19fan
Date: 2011-07-19 22:45
Hello I just recently received a Clarinet, I have no clue on anything about clarinets, as far as I am here to today to get a little learning lesson about them, for example, what kind of clarinet this is, what year it is, and if it is anything special, if so how much will it cost. Anyway, the clarinet I have received is a A. Fontaine made out of wood, and made in france there is also 4 digits of numbers in which i believe is the serial number, that is #1319. If any of you can help, please provide me with any information on this clarinet, or whom I can talk to or where? Thanks again have a great day!
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Author: chris moffatt
Date: 2011-07-21 00:38
"A. Fontaine, Paris" was a trade mark used on french instruments imported into the US. I believe Couesnon was using this name back in the fifties/sixties. The ones I've seen had clunky french keywork typical of several student clarinets of the time. Probably not a very valuable instrument
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2011-07-21 09:41
Unfortunately no serial numbers for this brand or most stencil brands for that matter. As far as I know the "A. Fontaine" brand was one of the stencil brands used by instruments imported by the US government in the 20's - 30's and was later used by the Fred Gretsch Company in the 60's. The only information I have ever seen on the earlier A. Fontaine instruments was that they were imported from La Couture, which means they could have been made by any one of the dozens of manufacturers located there at the time. The later Gretsch-imported A. Fontaine's are the ones generally assosciated with Couesnon. Take a look at the logo in the old A. Fontaine ads shown on this page: http://www.clarinetpages.net/vintage-odd-brands/couesnon .
This should at least help to determine if you have one of the older or newer A. Fontaine clarinets.
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Author: red19fan
Date: 2011-07-21 18:58
See thats the thing here I dont understand mine only says A. Fontaine in plain out lettering I dont see any of Couesnon so thats whats mostly throwing me off here. Im not really sure what to consider this clarinet.
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Author: SteveG_CT
Date: 2011-07-22 02:05
red19fan wrote:
> See thats the thing here I dont understand mine only says A.
> Fontaine in plain out lettering I dont see any of Couesnon so
> thats whats mostly throwing me off here. Im not really sure
> what to consider this clarinet.
Chances are you may have one of the early A. Fontaine's. Realistically it is probably of similar quality to the later Couesnon manufactured versions. It may end up being a decent playing instrument but like all stencils it will have minimal monetary value. If you can have it put in playing shape for cheap it may be worth it but I wouldn't invest much money in it. You can almost certainly buy a better instrument for what it would cost you to get this one overhauled.
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Author: jim lande
Date: 2011-08-28 01:27
On ebay, you frequently see A Fontaine metal clarinets. Those presumably date from the 1930s. Given that the name was used for imported instruments made under contract, different batches may have been made by different makers and quality can vary considerably. Good luck.
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