B&H is little-known in the US apart from the fact that they once acquired Buffet-Crampon. It was not a happy marriage. B&H is known more here in the USA for its fine brass instruments made in the British Brass Band tradition. Still, they made their own 'English Bore' clarinets up until the Buffet acquisition, and they are preferred to this day by many clarinetists throughout the Commonwealth. The pinnacle of the B&H clarinet family is the 1010, also known as the 'Symphony'. They feature.600' bores, and when encountered for sale are often found in a B-flat and A matched set. Other Boosey models are configured with a bore that 'only' measures.593'(!).
The gotcha with Booseys is some Regents made just after WWII were built with Mazak keywork that's prone to breakage and near-impossible to repair. I've also come across a hard rubber Edgware that had porous, flimsy brass keywork with really shoddy nickel plating.
Boosey and Hawkes first started making clarinets in 1891 with the serial number of 10948 and the last was made in 1934 with a serial number of 30981. They have a good reputation. New solid ebony clarinets are very expensive now because of the shortage of suitable wood - grenadilla wood is substituted today.
The vast majority of B&H's have sturdy, forged nickel-silver keywork. Just as with Pruefer and other mostly-forgotten brands, the ones with decent keywork cost no more to buy than the pot-metal abominations-so don't settle for one with crummy keys. It's possible to find old Booseys with excellent wood bodies and trashed keywork.
BOOSEY & CO./BOOSEY & HAWKES WOODWIND SERIAL NUMBERS BELOW 68956 The information presented here relating to the Boosey & Co. Serial numbers up to 1932 is taken from Kelly J. White and Arnold Myers: ‘Woodwind Instruments of Boosey & Company’, The Galpin Society Journal No. LVXX, May 2004, pp.62-80. The later serial numbers were researched by Gavin Dixon and Neil Raj.
![Hawkes Hawkes](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125352578/988099705.jpg)
According to the New Langwill Index (compiled by William Waterhouse, London 1993), woodwind production began at Boosey & Co. However, the earliest surviving records detailing flute production date from 1857, where the lowest serial number given is 4513. The surviving records for reed instruments begin in 1879 with the serial number 5968. It is therefore safe to assume that instruments bearing lower serial numbers than these were produced between 1851 and the respective sequence start dates.
The only known exception is a short run of clarinets that were made at a much later date. These bear serial numbers in the range 2782-3025 and were completed between 1940 and 1942.
![Clarinet Clarinet](https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images2/360/0213/15/boosey-hawkes-emperor-bb-clarinet_360_457cd3b062064ef4e8a9c7b23c494ddf.jpg)
They should be distinguishable by the fact that they carry the Boosey & Hawkes stamp rather than that of Boosey & Co. The Boosey Company maintained separate serial number sequences for flutes and reed instruments throughout their history as an independent company. The merger with Hawkes & Son occurred in 1930, but the new company continued to manufacture instruments under the Boosey & Co. Name until around 1932. At the end of the 1940s, the two serial number sequences were merged, with the flute sequence coming to an end and all subsequent flutes given numbers from the continuing reed sequence. The last number in the flute sequence is 31199 for an instrument completed 9/5/1950, while the first flute to appear in the reed sequence has the serial number 42799 and was completed 3/11/1949.
Despite the overlap in production dates, these numbers appear to have been issued sequentially in the last months of 1949. The following table is based on the dates serial numbers were given out and states the lowest number for each year. Assuming the numbers were given out sequentially (and there is some evidence that minor exceptions occurred), this allows individual serial numbers to be linked to specific years. The year given will indicate when the instrument was ordered from the factory rather than the actual production date, but the likelihood is that the instrument was completed either in the year stated or in the following year. LOWEST FLUTE SERIAL No.
YEAR LOWEST REED SERIAL No./ LOWEST WOODWIND No.