 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Steve Mowery
Date: 1999-04-06 13:36
I have an old silver clarinet called a Pan American Special a division of C. G. Conn LTD, Elkhart, Ind. I have been told that it was made in the 1920's and could be worth at least $5,000.00. Can anyone shed some light on this subject? Another fact is that this clarinet is an A instead of a B flat. This clarinet is in one piece instead of breaking down like modern clarinets.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-04-06 14:54
Take the money!
While it is certainly possible that the clarinet is worth $5000.00 if it is a sterling silver double walled A clarinet, you'd probably have a hard time finding a buyer for it. If it is a single wall plated brass instrument then the value would be significantly lower - but since it's an A then it could probably fetch more than the going prices of $50 to $100 for metal Bb instruments of that era.
$5000.00 would buy you a pretty exclusive clarinet today; the Wurlitzers and Hammerschmidts are the only popular clarinets I can think of that would exceed this price. The value of your clarinet, if indeed it is a rare one by being double walled and true sterling silver, would be determined by what a collector of rare instruments would be willing to pay, since most of the players of the instrument would just consider it an interesting oddity and would not purchase it for anywhere near that price.
Cheers,
Mark Charette@sneezy.otrg
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-04-06 15:28
I believe the date is probably incorrect as I don't think Conn bought out Pan American until about 20 years later. Unfortunately, I can't cite a reference on that as it is something that I remember reading but don't remember where I read it. Pan Americans were not generally of great quality (they were OK but nothing special) and Conn bought them out to use the name on their student line.
Does it have the Boehm or Albert system keywork? Are there any markings such as serial number or the letters HP or LP? As Mark has mentioned, the double wall solid silver ones have some real value but those were generally made to break down as we are accustomed to on standard wood rather than being one piece.
Could you post a more complete description?
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