Boosey & Co and Boosey & Hawkes brasswind serial numbers This list is based on a study of the surviving workshop archives of Boosey & Co and Boosey & Hawkes, now in the care of the Horniman Museum, London These tables give the earliest serial numbers recorded for each period.

I very recently became the owner of a Boosey & Hawkes Symphony Imperial 1010 Bb clarinet. Not a venerated pre-WWII but it does lack the somewhat debated Acton vent, and its 150xxx serial probably dates it to around 1958. Cared for and immediately playable out of its very, very stinky case, but totally filthy and smelly.

Gross but with no other flaws. So a sweet almond oil soak, strip down, clean, oil and polish has improved things immensely. Things were really crusty in the register vent and many toneholes The pads are 'okay' but I'm guessing some stuffiness and resistance is their fault. Corks and regulation all seem in goodish order.

However a visit to my tech is definitely due. I got lucky in that it included the original BM2 1010 bore mouthpiece and that it plays rather nicely. Some say bore size match is required on these (and all) horns. My Vandoren 5RV sounded not too different on it honestly. Tuning was slightly adversely effected but not direly.

I play modern Leblanc and Yamaha Eb and Bb so the spread, open smooth tone of this 1010 is very different. All other clarinets I've owned/played have had a more narrow core, focussed tone. I'm curious to know if this is the big bore sound or just the so-called British clarinet sound that Boosey was famous for?

Any 1010 or other B&H players here? Very nice - I would love to pick up one of these if I could ever excuse the cost, here they are still priced high. But comparable with any other pro level clarinet I guess. I have a 35 year old wooden Edgeware which is the intermediate level, and I like it. I recently had it re padded and re corked and it makes a nice tone.

I have been playing with various mouth pieces and reeds today to see what I like best. Mine came with a Selmer mth pce and a B+H 1010 and I bought a Vandoren 5JB to play around with. I haven't played for the main part of 25 years and its starting to come back to me. Thanks for posting firebladejedi, the B&H clarinets seem to get a little less love than they deserve, I think.

UK players seems more keen on them due to the marvellous reputation for quality they had. Here in Australia they are not uncommon (they were probably the only clarinet commonly available here until the 1970s) but not exactly sought after however. Those I see regularly are not in good condition. According to the bloke I bought mine from all interested parties were from the UK. I've been very keen to get my hands on a B&H for awhile.

Sleeper horns for sure. Sadly they're usually either in bad nick or the Regent or Oxford plastic student models.

I've been looking at and bidding on Edgware/2-10 models but missing out. 926s and Emperors at good prices have eluded me too.

I got super-lucky on this one. The price was chickenfeed really for a playable top notch professional horn. Glad I played the long game. Very nice, I too recently got a B&H clarient and have to agree with you.

They a very unknown good horn. The one I got I found on Craig'sList and it is an Edgeware model, serial number 135xxx and I dated it to be around 1956 or 57. It's a very good horn. I have my other horn to compare it to which is a Buffet R13 and it sounds nice but different compared to my Buffet. What's really interesting is according to the Women who sold it to me she said its made of Rosewood and at first I was skeptical cause I just didn't expect it to be. I never new they made many rosewood ones.