Clarinet, C
Maker
Graves & Co.
Date1832-1850 ca.
Place MadeWinchester, New Hampshire, United States, North America
Serial No.none
SignedStamped on top joint: [eagle] / GRAVES & Co / WINCHESTER / N.H. On barrel, middle joint, and bottom joint: GRAVES & Co / WINCHESTER / N.H.
On bell: [eagle] / GRAVES & Co / WINCHESTER / N.H. / C.
MarkingsStamped on back of long C-sharp key: P 11 2 88
Description5 sections: barrel, top joint, middle joint, bottom joint, bell. Simple system; 5 brass keys with flat, round covers, mounted in rings and lower joint stock bulge, with flat springs attached to keys; boxwood body; ivory ferrules; straight F-sharp/C-sharp key; original pewter mouthpiece.
This clarinet is made in a typical, Classical style with five sections, unlike the other Graves clarinets in the NMM's collections, all of which are constructed in four sections. The sharply cut, bottom-joint stock bulge (a reinforced socket) is characteristic of English clarinets, in contrast to the more gracefully curved stock bulge commonly found on Continental European clarinets. The F-sharp/C-sharp key on this Graves clarinet is straight, as is common on Continental instruments; however, on most of the other NMM's Graves clarinets, this key is cranked in the English style.
The original mouthpiece for this Graves clarinet is made from a pewter alloy containing quite a bit of lead, with a brass tenon. Its long shank extends completely through the bore of the barrel, abutting to an internal ridge that holds the mouthpiece securely in place. Only three Graves clarinets are known to have survived with their original pewter mouthpieces.
Samuel Graves (1794-1878) began making woodwind instruments in West Fairlee, Vermont, in 1824. Graves subsequently moved to Winchester, New Hampshire, in order to tap into water power from a dam on the Ashuelot river, and opened a new workshop there in 1827, along with three partners (Graves & Alexander). From 1832, the company was known as Graves & Co., the first to challenge European instrument makers in the American market, with a larger production and a more extensive line of instruments than any other American firm before the Civil War.
Dimensions(all measurements exclude tenons)
Mouthpiece: 59.8 mm
Upper joint: 166 mm
Barrel: 53.4 mm
Middle joint: 95 mm
Bell: 97 mm
Lower joint: 114 mm
Max diameter of bell: 72.5 mm
ProvenanceThis instrument was previously owned and used by Cecil B. Leeson (1902-1989), a pioneer American saxophonist who had more than fifty works written for him. In 1977, Leeson donated his collection to Ball State University, where he had been a member of the music department faculty. He was an advocate of the saxophone as an instrument capable of the highest degree of artistic expression, as well as one of the first musicologists and pedagogues of the instrument. He was a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, and others, as well as the first saxophonist to give a Town Hall recital in New York.
The Cecil B. Leeson Collection was transferred from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, to the NMM in May 1994, with the concurrence of Cecil Leeson's son, Tom.
Published ReferencesEliason, Robert. _Graves & Company_. Dearborn, Michigan, 1975.
Reeves, Deborah Check. "Historically Speaking." _The Clarinet_ 46, no. 1 (December, 2018): 34-35.
Reeves, Deborah Check. "Historically Speaking." _The Clarinet _ 48, no. 3 (June 2021):32-34.
"1994 Acquisitions Include Rare Pianos, Harp, Woodwinds." _The Shrine to Music
Museum Newsletter_ XXII, no. 2 (January 1995): 1-6.
Credit LineTransfer from Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, 1994
Object number05755
On View
Not on view
