 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-04-01 22:11
If anyone has a B&H 1010 within these serial numbers, could you post some photos of the keywork as I'm trying to work out why the one I saw the other day doesn't seem to ring true.
It has the usual thick barrel, but the keywork is of the '50s style (two trill key guides, adjusting screw going through the throat G# cup arm, short symmetric C#/G# touch, bridge key pieces are reversed (flared on top joint and parallel sided on the lower joint) and smooth LH F/C lever touchpiece) and the serial numbers have been stamped with different shaped numbers, stamped fairly crudely and illegibly and in the wrong place on the top joint.
This one doesn't have an Acton vent, not sure exactly when they were being fitted as standard (year or serial number), so that would also be good to know.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-04-01 23:01
These serial numbers date to approx 1960-63 years and the Acton vent didn't come in for quite some years after this. Peter Eaton may well know the exact date.
The features you note are very distinctly of the 1950s era.
There were quite a few keywork changes made to several B&H models about 1963 (e.g. that long side Eb/Bb key etc.) and so the 50s style may well have lasted until that date and you have one of the last of the older style models.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-04-01 23:11
It's the serial numbers (the style, the year they suggest and how they're stamped) which is what's got me wondering.
Did B&H employ any outworkers to finish 1010s?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2014-04-01 20:20
Certainly in 40s and 50s the 1010s were built in the small "craft" section of Edgware and my understanding is each one was completed by a single craftsman.
Probably the only living person now who worked there at that time is Tony Ward who moved to Australia many years back and has I am told "retired".
Tony was responsible for the keywork making and build on the handful of basset clarinet joints that Peter Eaton produced.
I think the rot began to set in at B&H craft department at end of 50s when several of their established workers (including Tony Ward) left. However I can't imagine that any part of the 1010 work would ever have gone outside Edgware even at that stage.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-04-02 03:16
Just heard from the owner and they were bought directly from B&H at Regent St. in 1963 and have the final approval label signed off by Jack Brymer.
So did 1010s carry on with the older style keywork well into the '60s when all others had the later Reginald Kell-style keywork?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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