Clarinet. Nominal pitch: E♭.

Henry Distin

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Instrument

Clarinet

Instrument Family

Wind

Maker

Henry Distin

Place Made

London ; England ; United Kingdom ; Europe

Date Made

Circa 1860

Description

Technical description: Metal: brass, nickel plated; body double-walled with (?) insulating material between walls. Body in one piece, bell, barrel and wooden mouthpiece. Barrel: upper ferrule of half-round section, 2.5mm wide, serves also to close the gap between inner and outer walls of the mouthpiece socket, which is 13.9mm deep; lower ferrule of twin half-round section is soldered to outer wall only, the latter forming a sleeve which surrounds the top 8.9mm of the body which is lapped with brown thread at this point; the inner wall of the body projects 12.4mm forming a tuning slide within the barrel. Body: In one piece; top of inner wall projects c 12.5mm to form a seal with the barrel; this is too short to function effectively as a tuning slide - the outer wall is reduced in thickness so as to fit the lower socket of the barrel; this projection was damaged long ago so measurements are only approximate. Remaining ferrules very narrow; thumb rest simple, peg-like, originally soldered to outer wall but now loose. L0: T; rod-type speaker, its axis is not quite parallel to that of the bore, with bowl-shaped chimney. L1: T; throat A♮; cross-over throat A♭, sharing a common pillar with A♮. L2: T; cross F₄/C♮₆ (necessitating the continental-type A♭). L3: T; cross E♭₄/B♭₅, sharing a common pillar with cross F₄/C♮₆ key above. L4: C♯₄/G♯₅; bascule E₃/B♮₄; F♯₃/C♯₅. R1: T; throat B♮ trill (curved round head of C♮); side F₄/C♮₆. There is a large dent at the back of the outer wall between finger-holes L3 and R1: this does not affect the inner wall. Bell: mis-shaping of rim perhaps repairable by skilled brass worker, but double-skin construction makes this difficult; new ferrule could be made. Mouthpiece: chip could be filled with coloured epoxy; tenon could be relapped without difficulty. Cap: could be cleaned and major deformation rectified. R2: T; spectacle ring. R3: T; spectacle ring. R4: Rod keys for G♯₃/E♭₅ and F₃/C♮₅ of elegant design and sharing a common axle. Keymount type: pillars soldered to metal body. Keyhead type: saltspoon. Playing accessories: With mouthpiece, probably not original, ligature and reed cap. Mouthpiece is of wood, probably cocus, apparently meant for use with ligature, tip chipped, tenon 13.5mm long, lapped with cork; bore 12.9mm, which is more than 2mm greater than that of body. With metal reed-cap, possibly original. Cap is of dull metal, perhaps brass nickel plated: cut away for reed and ligature screws; rim turned over; ferrule above cut-away of bell-shaped section ornamented with notches. The lower pillar for the L0 key previously repared and rather crudely soldered out of its true alignment. All finger-holes show wear at edges. Upper tenon damaged. Cap dented and misshapen. Repair History: Repaired by E. Planas, 1991; new B♮ key for L4 made.

Notes

T.K. Dibley, 1990; H. Fricke, July 2005.

Measurements

bell and body 411 to top of `tuning slide', c 390 to base of tenon; bell and body plus barrel 426 - 427 (estimated).

Provenance

on loan to the Collection.

Collection

MIMEd

Accession Number

3259

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