Lorée / F. Lorée
Clarinetpages member, David, has one of these. He has found evidence that the famous oboe maker by this name once made 200 clarinets.
Nophachai at U of A sent this information:
If I remember correctly Loree, Paris took over Robert, Paris around 1930-40. So it assumable that clarinet stamped Loree were made by Robert factory. I have seen few of them, one in particular has a serial number 672, but I do not have information what number did Loree clarinets started from.
Anyhow, I do own a Robert, Paris Bb clarinet so we can compare the keyworks on the Loree, Paris clarinet to the Robert, Paris clarinet. If the keyworks are matched, we may concluded that Loree clarinets were made by Robert's workshop.
[update, Phil 15Jan2016] It seems that neither the Lorée or the Robert play well in tune!
New Full Review, 23Dec2015:
Many thanks to Ron Mhoon for giving me the opportunity to review this clarinet.
Serial #6A3
Barrel: 63.8 mm
Bore LH joint top: 14.7 mm
Bore LH joint at bottom: 14.86 mm. The point measured is further down the clarinet because of the articulated C#/G# mechanism.
This clarinet comes with the articulated C#/G# key, so one expects a good instruemnt. It was made by the noted Oboe maker and has a low serial number. I think the maker had not yet figured out some things when he made this. It has the lovely metal center socket, which many oboes have. This could be because oboes all have an articulated G#. I assume the articulated key was made somewhat similar to those on the oboes by this maker. I was unable to get the C#/G# to close properly by adjusting the spring tension. The spring that closes the articulated key is the third one down. My opinion is that this was poorly designed. It really needs a bigger spring in that position to really close that key. (Careful use of a light rubber band would work.) The first spring— which opens that key when no right hand rings are pressed, must be set so that it works very gently, so that it will be overcome by the third spring that closes the key.
This is a very disappointing clarinet. One would expect a clarinet from this maker to be better. Simplicity in design is better for clarinets.
Intonation results taken when playing loud and not lipping. See how to interpret these results on the Model Comparison Page.
For this test, I pulled 0 mm at the barrel and 1 mm at the center tenon.
Intonation summary: Horrendous.
Key work quality: Fairly good for this period.
This clarinet is most appropriate for: No one.
Condition issues noted: There is a crack just below the articulated key which I filled and stabilized.
