I get to quote everyone! Actually, there's just so much good stuff to talk about:
Assuming this is a Mark VI and even possibly one of a kind, this is worth $40k.....why?
The phrase "one of a kind" has a tremendous allure. Combine that with the mythical, "It's a Mark VI!!!11111one" and "It's a
5-digit serial number Mark VI!1111one," and you might get someone's motor running. Mind you, the Mark VI soprano was never considered the non plus ultra of sopranos until very recently; essentially as a consequence of everyone going nuts over how the Mark VI alto and tenors are supposedly the best saxes ever. And, of course, the 5-digit serial number Mark VIs are supposed to be the best Mark VIs.
"One of a kind" also means that you can set the price to whatever you want and hope for the best. If there is such a thing as a Selmer sax collector, this would be a jewel in the collection. Do
I think it's worth $40K? Nope. I tend to think that the
Conn A soprano prototype that was somewhat recently sold on GetaASax.com would be worth more than this Selmer because it's
one of two surviving and it's in an extremely odd pitch for a saxophone. IIRC, that went for low 4-figures, so I'd value this Selmer considerably lower. The most expensive vintage horn
I've seen sold that wasn't owned by someone famous was around $30,000. Groovekiller knows more about A. Sax instruments and owns a couple, so he may have seen or heard of one of those going for more. I've not seen an A. Sax Eb alto, Bb tenor, Bb soprano, or Eb bari sell for more than low 5-figures, but it's possible a bass, sopranino, a C instrument or F instrument might have sold for more.
Technically, the standard range is keyed to high Eb. Altissimo range would start above high Eb.
The oldest surviving saxophone is a baritone from 1846(ish) and it's keyed to altissimo F. The A. Sax patent drawings
suggest a range to altissimo Eb. Fine. Hey, I didn't load all the flats and sharps for the note shape emoticons! I don't like writing 8va
flat!
. I'm also a recovering clarinet player and
that Eb is in the altissimo register on the clarinet, so there.
Here's why I wondered about the Mark VI designation: the key design. We all know Selmer made Mark VIs well into the Mark VII design phase, and with serial #'s that would have you think that they are Mark VIIs. Furthermore, we all know they never made Mark VII sopranos or baritones. I have examples of both of these, since I own a high serial #
Mark VI alto, with the Mark VI stamping, key designs, etc, that based on serial # 240xxx alone, you would think should be a Mark VII, yet it is not.
There were actually
quite a few Mark VII baritones, sopraninos, and Bb sopranos (I haven't heard of or seen a Mark VII bass). However, you then get into the question of what constitutes a Mark VII. Is it the "Mark VII" stamp on the bell-to-bow brace and/or the neck with the "M7"? Is it the funky low C/Eb keys? Is it just the serial number? Selmer's no help: hey, they used to tell folks that they never made curved sopranos.
Semi-officially, Selmer only made Mark VII altos and tenors. At least, that's what they'll say. The breakdown I've used for the Mark VI has been:
S/N 55201-220800, 1954-1974 (alto & tenor)
S/N 55201-365000, 1954-1981 (soprano, bari & bass)
S/N 55201-378000, 1954-1985 (sopranino)
That's from my old website and based on my observations from 2006 and earlier. The original page has, unfortunately, gone *poof*.
There has always been a lot of model bleed over on the Selmers, e.g. you could easily find a Mark VI alto with a Mark VII serial number. The only "written in stone" serial number is the first Mark VI that you have an ad of on your website -- and I bet that Selmer didn't have Mark VI baris and sopranos ready at that time.
Regarding my
Mark VI soprano, it too was made during the Mark VII production run, and is #266xxx. Its key design is clearly Mark VI in design, and those design features--eg. the octave lever--are different in this horn.
The big problem with sopranos is how different they look from their alto and tenor counterparts. The only major design feature I know of, off the top of my head, on the VI soprano that is so different from the VI alto is the design of the G#/C#/B/Bb cluster. As a matter of fact, I've seen a bunch of Chinese Selmer Mark VI soprano knock-offs that you can tell are fake
because they have a VI alto style G#/C#/Bb/Bb cluster.
I know the seller. He is very well informed about saxophones, and he researched this instrument thoroughly. He went to Selmer Paris and found this horn listed in their records. He tells me that the mechanism is nothing like the early Selmer sopranos, and it closely resembles Mark VI Bb soprano keywork.
That's really good enough for me. I think I would want the letter from Selmer if I was actually going to pay $40K for it.