btw, the auction ended last Feb...
Rarest Sax on eBay this Week
- Thread starter pete
- Start date
Slotted neck, like the SMLs. Which is interesting, as Raymond Dubois made some stencils for SML.
Take a peek at the horn at https://www.junkdude.com/ProductDetail.aspx?id_product=608. This one is probably a post-1935 horn. It's a lot less complex, but it's still pretty.
According to my research, there were three "levels" of Raymond Dubois sax. The Essor was the top level. The Essor I posted is wild with the extra keywork. Later horns were a lot less complex.
(Oh. According to Google Translate, "essor" means "boom." You've got sax with big boom.)
B&S Codera. Good shape. From our buddy, Quinn:
Linky
I remember when these first came on the market. I also remember Wolf Codera, but I haven't heard from him in years. His website's still there: http://codera.de.
Hey, Helen! You need some B&S pics on your website. Here's a start! (I need to find that username/pass you gave me ....)
Oh. Sorry. These horns were customized B&S horns by Wolf Codera. They're a nice variation on the padless theme. However, they didn't last for terribly long and B&S doesn't produce saxophones anymore (last I checked, at least).
Linky
I remember when these first came on the market. I also remember Wolf Codera, but I haven't heard from him in years. His website's still there: http://codera.de.
Hey, Helen! You need some B&S pics on your website. Here's a start! (I need to find that username/pass you gave me ....)
Oh. Sorry. These horns were customized B&S horns by Wolf Codera. They're a nice variation on the padless theme. However, they didn't last for terribly long and B&S doesn't produce saxophones anymore (last I checked, at least).
"Unique SELMER MARK VI Baritone Saxophone to Low A flat"
Dude. That should be "Mark IV."
EDIT: I'm sorry. Your Mark IV is HERE.
Dude. That should be "Mark IV."
EDIT: I'm sorry. Your Mark IV is HERE.
What I love is when people start using percentages. Hey, if the surface area of your horn is 100 square inches, 10% finish missing means that 90 square inches are perfect -- and 10% missing will look pretty darn good, if you're talking about 10% damage over the entire 100 square inches! For me, when I see someone using percentages to say how minty the horn is, 9 times out of 10 the horn is missing over 50% of its finish.
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As y'all may know, I occasionally get e-mails about horns. A very large percentage of them happen to be about horn value. Sometimes these e-mails are in the form of, "Here's a picture of my Salmer Mark IV alti saxaphone. It's almost perfect. I plan on auctioning it for $15 trillion, Canadian." On most occasions, the horn is badly beat up and worth maybe 5% to 10% of what the e-mailer thinks, even factoring in the Canadian exchange rate. So as not to shame these people, I occasionally share these e-mails with WF staff. It's my only way of letting off steam.
The absolutely WORST horn I've seen was a horn that had soldered tone holes that were obviously leaking at one point and some of the keyposts had also been damaged. From the solder run-off, it looked like he used a couple rolls of solder per tonehole. Still gives me chills.
Just to be pedantic, it's 'Parè', not 'Pare', and you can se the accent in the pic - just after the E.
US PC keyboard = hard to do accents, so I don't bother. Somewhat easier on a Mac.
However, I'm going to start using that as an answer when people e-mail me, "Oh. A Selmer Mark VI? I spent two whole minutes thinking about Googling it and came up with nothing, so it must be rare."
However, I'm going to start using that as an answer when people e-mail me, "Oh. A Selmer Mark VI? I spent two whole minutes thinking about Googling it and came up with nothing, so it must be rare."
A rare *serious* example: an Ernest Bénisch alto. Amusingly, there's also a soprano (listed as a "klarinet") on hyperinzerce. If these horns could talk, I'd bet they'd have an interesting story! They're pretty far away from France!
The alto's all of $189 US. If you buy it, clean it up and send me pics!
More info and pics of a better alto are at Luthier Vents.
The alto's all of $189 US. If you buy it, clean it up and send me pics!
More info and pics of a better alto are at Luthier Vents.
Another *serious* post. A Conn New Invention baritone.
I've had an ongoing discussion with a few folks about what constitutes the Conn New Invention, the model that was produced after the CG Conn factory was rebuilt in 1911 (it burnt to the ground in 1910), but the baritones are easy to tell: they have that little scrolly-piece on the neck/"pigtail."
Of course, while this is probably the rarest Conn model, the seller is out of luck: it's high pitch. I doubt he's going to get what he's asking for it, unless the buyer doesn't know what the "H" stands for.
I've had an ongoing discussion with a few folks about what constitutes the Conn New Invention, the model that was produced after the CG Conn factory was rebuilt in 1911 (it burnt to the ground in 1910), but the baritones are easy to tell: they have that little scrolly-piece on the neck/"pigtail."
Of course, while this is probably the rarest Conn model, the seller is out of luck: it's high pitch. I doubt he's going to get what he's asking for it, unless the buyer doesn't know what the "H" stands for.
Time Traveling Sax!
(Ad says that the horn's vintage 1979 and the bell's engraved, "Bd. of ed. N.Y.C. 1967.")
(Ad says that the horn's vintage 1979 and the bell's engraved, "Bd. of ed. N.Y.C. 1967.")
Another serious post, although not an auction. The real question is if the horn's actually for sale. Some of the entries on this website are 10 years old.
1878 A. Sax Eb Sopranino (link to original website)
The big negative, to me, is that the person that "restored" the horn did the following:
* Lacquered it
* Plated the keywork and/or replaced some of the keywork
* Put pearls on it (the reason why I think some of the keywork's not original)
* Repadded with resonators
However, unless someone can dig up another A. Sax F or C instrument or an original prototype, this is definitely the rarest horn you'll see this week.
1878 A. Sax Eb Sopranino (link to original website)
The big negative, to me, is that the person that "restored" the horn did the following:
* Lacquered it
* Plated the keywork and/or replaced some of the keywork
* Put pearls on it (the reason why I think some of the keywork's not original)
* Repadded with resonators
However, unless someone can dig up another A. Sax F or C instrument or an original prototype, this is definitely the rarest horn you'll see this week.
Going back to serious, try this horn. Here's a quote from Fredrick Hemke:
Now, the sax in the eBay ad isn't the horn that Mr. Hemke describes. Mr. Hemke is describing a horn with the following cool keywork (click pic to enbiggen):
(Pic is from The Saxophone by Stephen Cottrell. Free preview online, page 71 -- but read pages 67 to 71. They're an extremely good read.)
The horn in the eBay ad does have a side ("chromatic") C and it looks like it has the odd front F shown in the above patent drawing, but obviously not the LH pinky keys. It's also almost definitely 19th century.
For more stuff about L'Association Générale, check out pages 1 to 7 of The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, edited by Richard Ingham. Again, it's online and free. Interesting read! You can also check out this SOTW thread.
Now, the sax in the eBay ad isn't the horn that Mr. Hemke describes. Mr. Hemke is describing a horn with the following cool keywork (click pic to enbiggen):
(Pic is from The Saxophone by Stephen Cottrell. Free preview online, page 71 -- but read pages 67 to 71. They're an extremely good read.)
The horn in the eBay ad does have a side ("chromatic") C and it looks like it has the odd front F shown in the above patent drawing, but obviously not the LH pinky keys. It's also almost definitely 19th century.
For more stuff about L'Association Générale, check out pages 1 to 7 of The Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone, edited by Richard Ingham. Again, it's online and free. Interesting read! You can also check out this SOTW thread.
