Lot 401: CLARINET--VAN DER HAGEN, AMAND

MTHODE NOUVELLE ET RAISONNE POUR LA CLARINETTE, PARIS: BOYER & MADE LE MENU [C.1785-1790] 26 leaves ([2], 3 & 2-47 pages), oblong 4to (c.24.5 x 33cm), engraved throughout by Ribière, signed by the publisher on title ("Boyer"), 2 fingering tables illustrating early clarinets, contemporary wrappers; blue stencilled paper over card, early ownership or presentation inscription to flyleaf (Henry De Vay), tear to pp.45/46, [cf RISM Écrits, p.856 (one copy only)]

Very rare: only one copy is recorded by RISM (in Paris), and that with only 37 pages and a slightly differing imprint. This may be an unrecorded and augmented edition, but it is one of the earliest treatises on the clarinet, and probably the earliest ever to appear at auction. Later expanded editions are recorded by the Bibliothèque Nationale (1798), and RISM (c.1800 with 53 pages). The address of Boyer is given here as "Rue de Richelieu": after 1792, Boyer changed addess (Hopkinson, evidently erroneously, states that Boyer never used his own address in imprints with Mme Le Menu).