Matched Pair King Silver Sonic fully pearled Anniversary Editions: $75,000. Shipping is only $3000.
Anyhow, the "Anniversary" model is supposed to be a Silver-Sonic with gold leaf on the bell and covered with gold lacquer. Full pearls, of course. Serial number range around 305xxx to 320xxx, so 1950 to 1951, with only a couple hundred made. There are a couple of references to these on SOTW, but I also cannot find anything on HNWhite.com or in the publication archives of saxophone.org that suggests that there is such a thing as an "Anniversary Model" saxophone. Anniversary of what? HN White's 50th was in 1943 and HN White started manufacturing their own saxophones around 1915/1916. 35 year anniversary? My opinion is that someone just came up with a name for the finish, rather than say, "HN White King Super 20 Silver-Sonic, sterling neck, sterling bell with gold-leaf highlights and horn sprayed with gold lacquer."
There were, actually, HN White Silver-Sonic Anniversary model ... brasswinds. In 1993, for King's 100th anniversary (pic attached).
Anyhow, people have paid ungodly sums for these horns, like $28K in 2012 for an alto, or around $12K for a tenor in 2013.
In any event, I'm not seeing very good pictures of these horns, anyplace. I'd like to. The best I could find were these. Pretty small, but at least they're not out-of-focus like the ones in the eBay ad. I'm also happy there's a pic of the neck, so you can compare the (worn) neck and bell and see that the bell does have lacquer sprayed on.
I really don't see any reason why these horns should be valued more than a Silver-Sonic with just gold leaf on the bell and full pearls. I've seen some examples of both of those. Where are the folks arguing that lacquer "deadens" your tone?
Anyhow, the "Anniversary" model is supposed to be a Silver-Sonic with gold leaf on the bell and covered with gold lacquer. Full pearls, of course. Serial number range around 305xxx to 320xxx, so 1950 to 1951, with only a couple hundred made. There are a couple of references to these on SOTW, but I also cannot find anything on HNWhite.com or in the publication archives of saxophone.org that suggests that there is such a thing as an "Anniversary Model" saxophone. Anniversary of what? HN White's 50th was in 1943 and HN White started manufacturing their own saxophones around 1915/1916. 35 year anniversary? My opinion is that someone just came up with a name for the finish, rather than say, "HN White King Super 20 Silver-Sonic, sterling neck, sterling bell with gold-leaf highlights and horn sprayed with gold lacquer."
There were, actually, HN White Silver-Sonic Anniversary model ... brasswinds. In 1993, for King's 100th anniversary (pic attached).
Anyhow, people have paid ungodly sums for these horns, like $28K in 2012 for an alto, or around $12K for a tenor in 2013.
In any event, I'm not seeing very good pictures of these horns, anyplace. I'd like to. The best I could find were these. Pretty small, but at least they're not out-of-focus like the ones in the eBay ad. I'm also happy there's a pic of the neck, so you can compare the (worn) neck and bell and see that the bell does have lacquer sprayed on.
I really don't see any reason why these horns should be valued more than a Silver-Sonic with just gold leaf on the bell and full pearls. I've seen some examples of both of those. Where are the folks arguing that lacquer "deadens" your tone?
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