Oooh. Original case. Please take pics of that, too!
> I just assumed that it is some kind of a Contra
Well, technically you could say that a bass clarinet sort of a contra soprano. "Technically correct" is the best kind of correct.
I will first note that, while I was originally a clarinet player, I am not a clarinet historian. I'm a saxophone historian. Anyhow ...
Buffet would call this a "harmony" clarinet. Those have different serial numbers (scroll all the way to the bottom
here) than the Bb soprano. However, I doubt your horn's from 1949.
It's still possible that the horn actually is from 1936. Making the assumption that the engraving style across all Buffet instruments is the same, that engraving came out in the mid- to late-1920s on saxophones and probably ended about 1940. Also, if it is a horn made from the end of WWI to the start of WWII, the horn would probably be low pitch, per the Treaty of Versailles. Probably.
Is there a model name for this horn? I doubt it. Probably just a model number.
Is the horn rare? I've only seen two and I have fairly good Google-Fu.
Is the horn worth a bazillion dollars? I doubt it, but it might be worth a bit more than a standard bass clarinet.
I also did a brief patent search and didn't come up with anything really interesting.
I would not try to restore the horn in any way, until you can find someone else who knows more about it. Of course, don't just shove the horn in a corner of a leaky basement.
Steve Sklar's our (unpaid) staff clarinet guy. He might have more info. I also found the
International Bass Clarinet Research Center, which looks promising, but you have to wait for an admin to approve your membership. I'm waiting.
If you do find out the horn is worthless, other than it looks neat, I'll definitely take it off your hands. I'll even pay for shipping
.