These clarinets are hardly worth the scrap. From a purely artifact
standpoint, they really don't tell much of a story. The Pedler company made
mostly wood clarinets, but did do some high quality silver clarinets.
However, the Martin (not the guitar folks) company (now a part of the
mega-merger Conn-Selmer-Steinway Co.) bought the brand and put it on cheap
metal clarinets that were designed for school band use, which is most likely
what you have. If it has a name like "The Pedler", "Premiere", "American",
"Hoosier", and "Custombuilt" or something like that on it, then it
definitely one of these cheap clarinets. The best bet for this is if it has
the player's history to go along with it unless you want to interpret the
story of cheap musical instruments and mass-marketing in the first half of
the 20th century.

Good luck with finding it a home.

Dana Twiss (a retired band director)
Acting Curator for Historic Collections
Maine State Museum

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