Development of the Clarinet

Saw one of these at my new repair tech's house. Very cool nine-key from the early 19th century. I have an ancient clarinet too that Steve (the mod) fabricated a barrel for. Seems that many of these relics are missing the barrel.
 
It's one of those, "I'm surprised it survived that intact for this long."

I found that linky when I was searching for all-ivory clarinets. As always, it's amazing what you find when you're not looking for it.
 
I love looking at old clarinets :)

it's quite interesting the evolution of the clarinet from it's simple beginnings. The simple key mechanisms which only had felt as the sealing material (instead of our modern pads) and seeing the evolution of available keys.

one of these days I plan on building a basic recorder, then seeing what I can make from there :) If I could make a functional xylophone from bamboo pieces in 7th or 8th grade and was pretty well in tune, I should be able to make at least a simple recorder with a standard clarinet mouthpiece.
 
Recorders look relatively easy. Except when you start going tenor and lower.

I've seen only a couple complete ivory clarinets (not just boxwood with ivory trim) and some ebony clarinets. I'd love to research a bit further on those. I know that there are a couple of 19th century and earlier horn dealers out there. I'm probably going to have to go in that direction to find more examples!
 
Just don't try to import one from Europe (where such thing are much more common). Ivory is on the proscribed list of endangered wildlife products - bringing in an ivory clarinet will put you square at odds with the law (and they'll probably pick it up at the Customs level.
 
Terry's right. Folks that make reproduction instruments use a plastic substitute instead of ivory. On the other hand, instruments that I'm talking about are a couple hundred years old, so no worries.
 
I'm pretty sure that even antiques are covered by the wildlife laws. As I'm not going to be bringing one in myself, I'm not too worried. But, I'd think twice before bringing in any old billiard balls, clarinets or antique pianos...
 
SOTSDO said:
I'm pretty sure that even antiques are covered by the wildlife laws. As I'm not going to be bringing one in myself, I'm not too worried. But, I'd think twice before bringing in any old billiard balls, clarinets or antique pianos...
Click to expand...
AFAIK if you produce a "made before ban" certificate, you're on the safe side. Heck, just think of a vintage piano...
 
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