Paris, France
Auguste Buffet

Boxwood, Ivory, metal 
c. 1840-1860  
Height: 25.5 inches
Wind Instruments – Woodwinds – Single Reed

This Auguste Buffet Clarinet in B-Flat, features the clarinettist Iwan Müller’s system. The basic idea was to allot a key or hole to every semitone and to place the tone-hole in the correct acoustical position. The main invention of Iwan Müller was a hinge key for the F3/C5 tone-hole, which was normally covered by the little finger. The advantage of the key-covered hole is that it can be bored at the optimal acoustic position and needn’t be undercut like the finger-hole before. This changes not only the whole disposition of the tone-holes but also the sound and the loudness of the clarinet.

Another major achievement of Müller was the saltspoon keyhead, which unfailingly closes the hole. This has a half ball shape that is filled with wool and covered with fish skin. The tone-hole has a profiled seating to fit the key. This Buffet a Paris Clarinet also shows the “Needle Spring” mounted on posts screwed into the clarinet, a new design of the throat A and Ab key, introduced by Auguste Buffet in 1837.

Resource:  Clarinets in the Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments. http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/euchmi/ugw/ugwf1i.html