Artcraft
Thanks so much to Barry for pictures of Allison's clarinet. Barry teaches clarinet in Australia. It is becoming clear that some French Stencil brands were mainly sent to certain countries. This could be one reason I have never heard of this brand in the USA.
OVERVIEW
Pitch: Bb
Key System: Boehm System
Maker: Malerne
Brand Name: Artcraft
Place of Manufacture: France
Approximate Date: 1940s-1950s
Body Material: Wood
Bore Type: standard
Key Metal: plated
Keywork Quality: unknown
Serial Number: unknown
Recommended For: unknown
Value: up to $200
This article is incomplete! Please contact us with any additional information.
Details from Barry:
«One of the details of this old Clarinet is that it has a slightly smaller top tenon of the upper section. The measurements are
19 mm long / 22 mm wide (the bore is 15mm) The dimensions of the barrel are 20.5 mm socket depth at the lower end and 17 mm socket depth at the mouthpiece end. The barrel socket width (internal) are 22 mm at the mouthpiece end and 22.5 mm at the lower end.This all means that most other barrels are too loose on this tenon and most other mouthpieces are also too loose in the barrel socket. The original mouthpiece has been ruined by someone attempting to alter the lay and is now unusable.»
My response:
I suspect that someone cut the barrel down on the top improperly. My meaning is that they shortened the depth of the tenon joint, then they filed the mouthpiece tenon to match. But they did the shortening with the top tenon ring off and filed the outside in order to fit the tenon ring back on.
This looks more like a Malerne product than the Thibouville to me. This doesn't have the wide finger rings like the Thibouville. The case confirms my impression that this was made in the 1940s, or perhaps early 50s.
Due to Annette's response, Barry was kind to send more information. I was wrong in my response.
«The top tenon joint of the top section is 19 mm long.
The lower tenon joint of the top section is slightly shorter than 16 mm. (15.75 perhaps)
The mouthpiece I'm assuming is not the original and has been ruined anyway.
It's tenon is 17 mm.
One measurement that I did not include previously is that the barrel is 64 mm long.
The rings look like they are the normal width , so this barrel has not been shortened, but one can
never really tell. All the mouthpieces that fit into the barrel still have a gap of about half a mm or less.
I do hope this is all of some usefulness to you.
One thing I've noticed about these old wooden Clarinets, is that they have real 'heft' or density
mechanism aside.
I'm assuming that it is because they had access to some real top quality grenadilla in those days.
Nowadays, you really don't know what you are getting especially considering that they are using
a limited resource. Yours Truly Barry»