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!