I think the Premiere and Premier were completely different models, actually. The Premiere was marketed as a student instrument and I've only seen them in metal. The Premier seems to be only wood, and the existence of a 7-ring variant suggests it was more up-market. Considering the definitions of each word, that seems the most plausible. Unfortunate choice by the marketing department though.
All of my Pedlers have a shared post for the throat keys, but I noticed something important - earlier models have the rods for both keys in the same plane (i.e. the threaded ends could intersect) like a Bundy, later models have the Ab rod set above the A rod, like a Conn. My American and Premier (both from the '30s) have the older style while the Ebonite, Custombuilt, and Grenolite have the newer style.
I have a photo of a guarantee bond of a Model 157, serial no. E20675, with "8/21/47" written in the upper margin. Without any context I couldn't put much stock in it before, but knowing that revised keywork had probably appeared by this point we might have E20000 as a rough starting point for postwar production.
If you have that photo, please share it here, and photos of other documentation, sales receipts, etc. I think it is best to pool the artifacts and document them here rather than simply reference such documents. That way we have a substantiated record of collective experience rather than one person's limited experience.
I have one clarinet marked Pedler Premiere (French spelling) that is hard rubber with no serial. It's featured and documented in another thread (
http://clarinetpages.info/smf/index.php?topic=1122.0 ), identical to a La Premiere Française, which also was made by Harry Pedler. The key work is like that of the Harry Pedler era;- check the shape of the throat trills. The only difference I can see between that Premiere and "The Pedler" model by Harry is that the Premiere does not have the Pedler appliance on the lower joint and has a standard crow's foot arrangement. Of course that difference would mean that the Pedler model with the appliance would have been a higher end model than the Premiere without it, even during the Harry Pedler era.
I have documented another Premiere (French spelling) 7-ring that is also hard rubber, E3253. It also has keys that are mostly seen during the MBIC period;- again check the throat trill key work (seller's photo below), one shared trill pivot. Presumably there are wooden, ebonite, as well as metal Premier models, and definitely ebonite Premiere models. All three of the later MBIC Pedler woodwinds models were available in wood, hard rubber, or silver plated metal, according to an old advertisement from 1940, which I assume is authentic. Advertisements and catalog pages provide a snapshot of what was available at a particular point, but of course that could have changed independent of an ad or catalog at any time.
I also have a MBIC Premier wooden 7-ring, P9218. It's very nicely made, but it does not have the same mechanism as a 7-ring Pedler model P11297, nor does it have silver-plated keys as does P11297. Whether it is spelled Premiere or Premier, it is an intermediate model. There probably aren't many Premiere models made in wood because at the time of that production there were simply not many Pedler soprano clarinets of any kind made in wood.
The Premiere and Premier were different models, but mostly because these were built at different times. These were both second in the line up whatever period is considered. The two Permiere models that I reference above seem to indicate that at some point the Premiere became the Premier simply with the removal of one letter at the end of the name. The second model in the line was still being marked Premiere when the MBIC type throat trills came into use, and fairly deep into serialization as well.
