I had to do some sleuthing this morning, in order to figure out exactly what on earth this little eBay gem was. A seller currently has up for auction, a Mortier Electrosax.
Source: schmutz_farmers
Source: schmutz_farmers
You might be asking yourself: What exactly makes this an Electrosax? Well, it could be these wires sticking out of the neck, where the mouthpiece would normally go…
Source: schmutz_farmers
Check out the neck. Does this look like any real saxophone you’ve ever seen in your life? I didn’t think so.
Here is how the seller describes this saxophone-shaped oddity:
Insanely Rare Mortier ELECTROSAX Saxophone Silver Tone RARE
You Will NOT See Another! Make An Offer
Ok so I ha e searched high and low an can come up with nothing… So up for buy it now or best offer is possibly a one of a kind sax. The engraving reads-
Systeme Usines Mortier Krevet no 432417 Electrosax.
It needs love and cleaning, but I can assure you, you will not see another anytime soon!
If you have any questions please ask, otherwise make an offer anytime! I love offers!!!
Free shipping worldwide!
Here are the rest of the pics, of this non-saxophone, saxophone:
Source: schmutz_farmers
By now you might be asking yourself: What exactly is this thing? Well I asked myself this same question this morning, and some Googling turned up a video of a 112 key, Mortier Dance organ. Notice the saxophone prominently displayed in the lower centre of the organ.
One owner of such an organ, who used to have many videos uploaded YouTube, wrote the following about the history of this, and other similar organs:
These instruments were originally intended for and used in large Dance Halls and travelling Dance Tents around Belgium, before the 2nd World War – and they excel at playing the light dance tunes of their day, all short pieces of music so that the owners could maximise revenue (pay per dance).
Now if you’re a serious GASaholic, and are looking for the ultimate in saxophone-shaped things, a dance organ with a saxophone might just be the ticket. 😈
Now there is no denying that these Mortier dance organs are lovely, but my favourite is still this DeCap, which features a robot playing an alto Toneking.
Getting back to the Mortier Electrosax currently on eBay, if you have an organ, but are missing the sax, here’s your chance to pick one up. For sax players, there is no value in this piece however, since it is only a chunk of metal in the shape of a saxophone. That said, I’d be curious to know what an appraiser values this at.
The auction for this Mortier Electrosax runs until June 1. The Buy It Now price is $6,100, but the seller does make it very clear that he/she is open to offers. At the time of writing, there were no offers on this rather unique piece of Belgian dance hall history.
From my trip to the MIM:
http://thesax.info/wp-content/gallery/mim_trip/dsc_0432.jpg
That theater organ had two saxophones ….
There’s a place called Organ Stop Pizza a couple miles away from me(http://www.organstoppizza.com). They have a completely restored Wurlitzer theater organ. The pizza’s decent, too.
Thanks for that Pete. It looks like it’s a Decap.
I wouldn’t want to have to be one of the roadies packing around these dance organs in the 1930s. Talk about a back-breaking job! 😯 And they say bass saxophones are cumbersome.
Seriously, I wonder how these large organs were protected from damage during moving and transport from one dance hall and tent to another, throughout the Belgium countryside? I would think the risk of damage to them would be rather high. Did they have to get repaired regularly? :scratch:
Update: The seller of this Mortier Electrosax relisted the item with a BIN price of $3,000. A lucky winner walked away with it for $300.00. I hope the winner has a Mortier organ, and isn’t a sax player in the middle of a massive G.A.S attack. 😈