Old French ebonite clarinet!

All these instruments have a story,  certainly a big part of that story I'll never know but I can relate the part that I do know,  and here we go with this oldie.
This clarinet was one of those buys that happened sort of on accident.  I was at someone's house to pick up an old Holton alto I was buying,  which I posted about earlier.   The seller tells me he has other instruments and we go through his garage,  nothing very exciting,  then he pulls this case out and I get a little excited.
Then we opened the case and I find a VERY faded/greenish old Bb clarinet!  He said it was his grandfathers (as was the Holton alto) and he had left it in the window for many years......hence the fading to the ebonite body.  Well I couldn't find a makers name at first glance and wasn't so hot on having another low value project in the workshop,  but I couldn't turn down the $10 price!
Fastforward a bit and I am in the workshop with a magnifying lens trying to find a maker,  when I discover on the bell, faintly,  L. Lebret Paris!
The name didn't ring a bell but I started researching. 
Turns out Lebret had his own workshop in Paris until his apprentice,  Robert Malerne took over.   I think most of us have heard of Malerne,  his firm turned out many, many instruments.
So things are getting more interesting eh?  Now the Lebret name means this clarinet is old,  and some features of the keywork point this out to us:  the left hand pinky levers are mounted on a single post, which the French abandoned after 1930 or so,  the thumb rest is of the "old style",  and there is no adjuster screw on the G# key (although sometimes I see this missing on much later clarinets!).

At this point I'm getting excited about refurbishing this instrument.  After tearing it down it was obvious this was a finely crafted instrument,  the keywork was very well made and the plating was excellent!  We shouldn't forget that at this point in the history of clarinets ebonite was a new material and was not deemed to be used on student instruments only,  and this clarinet attests to that. 

Now as I mentioned the body was very faded and green.  I looked in to restoring this and found that folks have had success with using black leather dye,  which I ended up using.  It made the clarinet look black again!
Rebuilding the instrument was a joy,  new leather pads installed, cork replaced as needed.
Play testing was very exciting as I realized the instrument played as well as I hoped. 

Instruments like these are interesting in the world of buying and selling.  Old ebonite clarinets seem to have little or no value,  which is perplexing!  I don't think I'll start in on the merits of ebonite clarinets here but I may at some point!  Just look up Ridenour clarinets,  who are manufacturing professional quality ebonite clarinets RIGHT NOW.

So cool that this clarinet turned out the way it did,  I love my job and here's another reason why!

G Penzel "Professional" clarinet

This clarinet is fairly rare.  I've done some research on this one,  it wasn't so straightforward!

See,  the Penzel Mueller company is fairly well known,  I've worked on many of their instruments and am well impressed by their build quality and playing characteristics.  
When this clarinet showed up I was a bit puzzled.  I knew that both Penzel and Mueller had separate firms in the early 1900's before they joined up, but this clarinet,  marked only with Penzel's name,  was certainly not from this era based on the keywork.
Well with some digging it turns out that sometime after WWII,  perhaps even in the 1950s,  near the end of the Penzel Mueller company, they offered the "G Penzel" line.  All of these instruments had serial numbers starting with the letter "U" as this one does.
Three models were offered in this line,  the Professional, Pacemaker,  and Bel Canto.

I just had a Bel Canto thru the shop a few months back!  The Bel Canto was supposed to be a "student" instrument but certainly was not built like one or play like one, it was fantastic!

Anyway back to the "Professional" clarinet here.   Not sure who they were aiming this clarinet at but it seems like they intended it to be for the professional musician, eh?
The wood and build quality are typical Penzel Mueller style here, top notch.
The only downside to this instrument in particular was that the key plating was very very tired, worn, patina'd.   Could be worse.
New leather pads were installed and any cork that needed replacing was replaced.
It plays great!
I believe the bore is .585" if I remember correctly.  I should write these things down!
This clarinet came with the original (I'm assuming) Penzel Mueller "Artist" mouthpiece which was very nice,  good quality ebonite with a nice facing.
As of writing this I'm just finishing up a run of clarinets through the workshop,  I have 7 soon to be 8 clarinets up for sale! 
I always say working on clarinets is a breath of fresh air after the sometimes complicated scenarios that happen with vintage (and non vintage!) saxophones.
Just as a teaser there's an old Kohlert bass clarinet showing up this week!!!!!