... didn't the VIs have european and others had US engraving ? I thought there were specific identifiers (the engraving themes) that were relevant.
Ralph Morgan would have been the better person to ask, but that'd be a tad difficult to do, now. Anyhow, I do know that the Selmer (Paris) horns shipped to Selmer USA were assembled and lacquered in the US. Engraved? I dunno. I'd assume it was possible that some were done in the US: Conn and Buescher had engravers, after all.
There's another problem, too: all the Selmer USA-assembled horns had a matching serial number on the neck. A lot of folks don't list that in their eBay ads, etc. I know the pool was small enough that I didn't bother keeping track.
The statement I made above about two-tone and plated Selmer instruments is confirmed, though: they were often engraved differently than their lacquered brethren. I generally use
this pretty horn to demonstrate, but I've got others.
I *think* I remember seeing a Selmer Mark VI ad someplace that mentioned additional/custom engraving as an extra price mod, like the altissimo F#. There are also VIs with the additional G# trill and other keys, so there's a real probability that you could get anything you wanted if you wanted to pay for it.
The overwhelming majority of VIIs I've seen do not have engraving. I have not tried to pigeon-hole that into a specific serial number range, but it may very well be possible that you've got engraved horns in a specific range. Hey, colored lacquers on the VI were only available in a particular range, so I don't see any reason that engraving couldn't be.
A couple more things to remember about the VII:
* I've seen all of two VII altos with low A keys. I did not note if there was an engraving difference between the low A VI and low A VII.
* The bari, soprano, sopranino and bass were still VIs during the VII run. Engraving could have changed from the VI years to VII years. The bass also had a redesign at some point, so that might also be interesting to look to see if that had two or three engraving changes.
* It'd be interesting to note if M serial number VIIs and N serial number VIIs have different engraving. 'Course that'll whip the Selmer fanbois into a frenzy. Which I heartily enjoy.
Oh. Open questions: as mentioned above, the US-assembled VIs had serial numbers on the neck. Does anyone know if:
* Any baris or basses had necks with serial numbers?
* Selmer used any scheme to identify "matching necks" on the VII?