OK, What's THIS?

pete

pete

Brassica Oleracea
Staff member
Administrator
No, I'm not challenging folks. I really don't know what this is. I only know it's a Leblanc. It's also not a sax. This seller is a guy that has a lot of really interesting, very old, woodwinds. I've corresponded with him in the distant past and I thought he died a few years ago.

Album on my Gallery.
Original eBay ad.

If I was to guess, I think it might be a prototype clarinet with saxophone range and fingering, but that's only a guess.
 
That is a perfect example of an "ISO" (instrument shaped object). Someone constructed that as more of an art piece than an actual musical instrument. There are no finger buttons or touchpieces, and the positions, groupings, and sizes of the keycups and toneholes make no acoustic sense whatsoever. The "neck" with the name LeBlanc was modified from a bass or alto clarinet neck. As to who made it, my guess would be a tinsmith with way too much time on his hands.
 
Could this be a saxello or soprano sax variant? In looking at the photos, I don't see any finger buttons for the keys. Where do you place your fingers? One would think that for 67,000 Euros Leblanc would put a few pearl buttons on the thing.
 
It's fun to imagine how to play it, with the left hand curled over the front of the tube and the right hand key holes under your palm. It's for contortionists only.
 
wanabe said:
Could this be a saxello or soprano sax variant? In looking at the photos, I don't see any finger buttons for the keys. Where do you place your fingers? One would think that for 67,000 Euros Leblanc would put a few pearl buttons on the thing.
Click to expand...
The award for not reading all the posts in the thread goes to .... :p

Anyhow, the selling price was 167,00 Euros. European countries tend to use the comma (,) instead of a dot (.) for expressing cents, so it sold for 167 Euros, which is about $228.

The reason why this thing confused me is because it actually looks like it's partially together properly, but it's unfinished. As an easy example, that "octave vent" on the neck isn't attached to anything on the body of the horn. I'd actually love to say it was part of a theater organ, but the saxophones and clarinets that are attached to theater organs don't have real mouthpieces.

It still makes me want to go look through Leblanc patents and see if I can find something similar, but I think JBT and Ben are probably right.
 
pete said:
The award for not reading all the posts in the thread goes to .... :p

Anyhow, the selling price was 167,00 Euros. European countries tend to use the comma (,) instead of a dot (.) for expressing cents, so it sold for 167 Euros, which is about $228.

The reason why this thing confused me is because it actually looks like it's partially together properly, but it's unfinished. As an easy example, that "octave vent" on the neck isn't attached to anything on the body of the horn. I'd actually love to say it was part of a theater organ, but the saxophones and clarinets that are attached to theater organs don't have real mouthpieces.

It still makes me want to go look through Leblanc patents and see if I can find something similar, but I think JBT and Ben are probably right.
Click to expand...

One would have thought that I would have noticed that after having lived in civilization for a number of years. :)
 
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