Maker

Jean-Jacques Baumann (1772 - 1845, August 9th )

Dated/City

c.1825-30 / Paris

Descriptions

Boxwood, Ivory ferrules, grenadilla mouthpiece*, 13 brass keys with salt spoon key covers; springs attached to keys mounted in pillars on the foot plates.

Full Marking

" (five pointed star) / (lyre) / BAUMANN / A PARIS / (five pointed star) / C " : barrel,  lower joint.

Additional Marking

• " (five pointed star) / (lyre) / BAUMANN / A PARIS / (five pointed star) " : between the finger holes of the upper joint and lower joint
• " C " : above throat a key of the upper joint

Length

  596 mm. /  530 mm. (without mouthpiece)

• Mouthpiece: Charles Roth, Strasbourg (1844-1881)
• There are only two identical 13-key clarinets by Baumann that known to survived, the other one (W267) is in the collection of The Fisk Museum of the Claremont Colleges
• This instrument included the cutting edge of technology for clarinets at that time.  *Baumann used Cesar Janssen's rollers, introduced in 1821, on each of the F/C-Ab/Eb and E/B-F#/C# keys. The metal rollers are of a medium size, larger than those found on later French clarinets and Albert-system instruments. There is a wraparound register key and there are indentations in the wood to enable the keys to lie closer to the tone holes when pressed, allowing better sliding from the keys to the tone holes. There is also a metal tube in the barrel, a metal thumb rest, and a metal "bumper" on the underside of the F#/C# keys.