When I noticed the Adolphe Edouard Sax alto saxophone on eBay a couple of days ago, I did some research trying to find serial number listings for original Sax instruments. It quickly became obvious that there really weren’t charts that were saxophone-specific. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be only 1 source that had gathered information on the Sax brand of musical instruments in general.
This online source—simply titled List of Adolphe Sax Instruments—is written in part by Arnold Myers from the University of Edinburgh. The main goal of this chronological listing is to provide:
…information on all known brass instruments made in Sax’s workshop, all saxophones made by their inventor Antoine Joseph (Adolphe) Sax (1814-94), and all other instruments made by Adolphe Sax in Paris. Some of these are extant, some lost long ago, and some reported in living memory but not now located. Some instruments, such as the Besson & Co. collection (exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition of 1890) seem to have disappeared. Such instruments have been included in this list as examples of Sax’s production and in case they come to light in the future. Un-numbered instruments or instruments where we cannot be certain that they were made in the Sax workshop are listed (approximately) in the chronological sequence or at the end.
Source: List of Adolphe Sax Instruments by Eugenia Mitroulia and Arnold Myers
The listing also includes instruments made by Adolphe Edouard Sax (1859-1945)—Adolphe’s son, who carried on the family tradition of instrument manufacturing.
The list provides the following information (where known) on each instrument:
- Its serial number;
- Date of manufacturing;
- Its name, nominal pitch, and model details;
- The name of who made it (Adolphe or Adolphe Edouard) and where;
- Its inscription;
- Its provenance, current whereabouts, as well as;
- A photo of the inscription.
The authors state that this inventory is intended to supplement hard copy resources which become outdated very quickly. This current listing was last updated June 13, 2010.
So if you have an Adolphe Sax or Adolphe Edouard Sax original instrument—saxophone or otherwise—check to see if it is on this chart. If it isn’t, the authors would love to hear from you. They are looking for original Sax instruments for this important historical document.
Tengo un adolphe sax, en la inscripción dice medalle d’or 1.900 r. De l’ academie h de musique. 84 rue myrha, paris made in france 15527.
Está en muy buen estado sin golpes ni abolladuras ni arañazos, quisiera saber cuanto vale y como lo puedo autentificar
Hi I have an adolphe sax marked with no 954 and made in Paris . Can you tell me the year ?
Hello Keith.
Interesting horn you have. Actually, I am nowhere near an expert on Adolphe Sax saxophones. I suggest you get in touch with my buddy Pete Hales. He is much more familiar with Sax’s instruments than I am. Email him at: thesaxinfo@gmail.com
hallo ich habe auch 1 adolphe edouar sax
Medaille d or 1900 84 rue myrha
11025 could you me help i want now the Price of this
and more info thank you
I would give you same info I gave Keith. Get in touch with my buddy Pete Hales. He is much more knowledgeable about Sax-made saxophones than I am. His email is: thesaxinfo@gamail.com
I’ve actually started a project that I’ve been meaning to get to: updating that list. Saxophones only, though. I’m trying to find pictures, too. So far I have about 50 on my list and about that many I need to upload to my gallery. Most aren’t on the Myers list or on a Sax serial number chart of known instruments from 2004 I found. Hey, both lists were compiled in the early days of the Intarwebs. It’s now a lot easier for me to search for horns for sale in different countries and there’s the Google image search function, too.
Maybe that tenor I sent you pics of Pete, will aid in your search. Sans chromatic F# tone hole and all. 😉
I think what you’re doing will be a great resource. I have another alto that I have pics of too. I haven’t got them in my gallery. It’s a beautiful A.E. horn. (Maybe you have them already?) In any event, they’re here if you want them…. Complete with serial # of course.
It is interesting isn’t it, how the basics of the horn haven’t changed. It appears that Adolphe got it right the first time around… And by that I mean by the time he received his patents.
My “new to me” Buffet bari, circa 1886, is based on the Adolphe Sax design, and according to Randy Emerick, very similar to his A. Sax original bari that is roughly 20 years older. The key layout is very easy to use, and not at all difficult to operate at quick speeds. While it definitely has mouthpiece preferences, once it is fixed up by my tech, it will sound like the original saxophones did. (Currently it is leaking too badly to sound like much of anything.)
If we were all transported back in time, only the most stubborn players who couldn’t adapt to playing vintage horns wouldn’t survive as sax players. These antique instruments were easy to play. Yes, rollers are nice. Sure having pearls is nice. So are articulated G#, front F, high F#, etc, etc keys. But you know what? They are not necessities. You can perform on a horn without these features, and it still sounds great.
Randy recently redid his recordings page and included a recording of his A. Sax bari. It doesn’t sound like a modern bari, but it sounds like what it is. The video also includes lots of photos of his horn.
It amazes me that although the keywork has changed and been extended, and the bell has gotten longer to accommodate low Bb (and A), one basic part of the saxophone has not changed since the mid 19th century — ITS SHAPE. The bari still has a coil in the same place (though usually on the other side, my Dolnet bari being one of the rare exceptions), tenors still have the arched neck, altos still have the single bend, and most sopranos are still straight!
Although these are clearly identifiable to the trained eye as early saxophones, they are also clearly identifiable as saxophones, even to the most untrained eye. Set the above picture next to a SATB quartet of modern Selmers and it will be obvious that they are just different interpretations of the same theme.
Sure we’d probably have some difficulty maneuvering on these instruments, and they probably wouldn’t work too well with mouthpieces made in the last 60 or 70 years, but if we found ourselves back in the 1850s having to play them, I bet we could manage. Having to get along without the car, cell phone, and computer would be much more difficult!