Geoff Lawton designed and made mouthpieces from the early 1960s, initially under the Lawton-Barton brand. Following the death of Dennis Barton the brand changed to Lawton in 1965 and the design was updated, producing what we have called the "Early Lawton".
Geoff spent a lot of time trying new ideas for mouthpieces, using different materials, experimenting with different shapes of chamber and throat, various baffle designs and a range of facing curves and tip sizes. Many of these experimental prototypes were never sold publicly, but sub-pages of this section of the website describe and show the following commercially available models and variants:
[c.1961 - '65] Lawton-Barton
[1965 - '67] Early Lawton
[1967 - now] Plain (Standard) Model
[1967 - now] Model B
[1979 - now] Model BB
[1987 - 2003] Model BBB
[unknown] LW - Long Window
[c. 1984] R - Reflector Baffle
[c. 1989] S - High Resonance Chamber
[1988 - now] Special Model (Bronze)
[2002 - '04] ICON (Limited Edition)
Minor Ligature Variations
As well as the main models and variants listed above and described on other pages, Lawton produced a few variations that related to the ligature.
No slide-on ligature grooves: When the soprano was introduced in September 1978 it was produced initially without the familiar slide-on single-screw ligature, grooves and mouthpiece cap, which were added in January 1979. A small number of other mouthpieces were produced at various times without the ligature grooves.
Metal inlays for ligature grooves on ebonite models: Lawton has provided some ebonite models with metal grooves inset into the ebonite, presumably to reinforce them or to allow the ligature to slide more smoothly.
Ligature with rubber clamping plate: When Lawton introduced the High Resonance Chamber model it was advertised in the A4 leaflet as having a "rubber clamping plate". This was an alternative to the ligature's curved metal plate against the reed, but this variation seems to be very rare.