{"id":5257,"date":"2012-10-29T15:53:51","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T22:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/?page_id=5257"},"modified":"2021-01-04T17:21:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T19:21:23","slug":"couesnon-saxie","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/vintage-saxes\/sax-shaped-things\/metal\/couesnon-saxie\/","title":{"rendered":"Couesnon Saxie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Couesnon,<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: homiept0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Couesnon Saxie finds its roots back to the June 3, 1924 patent application<\/a> of Frederick B. Hammann. Hammann described his little invention like this:<\/p>\n

To all whom it may concern:<\/p>\n

Be it known that I, FREDERICK B. HAMMANN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Toy, of which the following is a specification.<\/p>\n

My invention relates to a toy saxophone and has for its object the providing of a reed musical instrument capable of being played without keys with a curved exterior to resemble a saxophone.<\/p>\n

A further object of my invention is the providing a musical instrument with an extending amplifier on the fixed range of the instrument.<\/p>\n

A further object of my invention is an improved construct-ion of finger holes to give a flat surface to the finger.<\/p>\n

A further object of my invention is the adopting an external reed mouth piece to what is known as a fiageolet.<\/p>\n

A further object of my invention is an improved means for holding the reed on the mouth piece of wind reed instruments.<\/p>\n

Source: Google Patents<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps not surprisingly, his little toy saxophone<\/em> looked an awful lot like the Saxie.<\/p>\n

\"F.<\/a><\/p>\n

Source: Google Patents<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Although Hammann\u2019s original design idea may have been intended as a toy, Couesnon\u2019s Saxie was likely something else. According to Pete Hales, the man formerly known as Saxpics:<\/p>\n

If I was to venture an opinion on the Saxie and other sax-related toys, I\u2019d say they were primarily used as a \u201cgateway drug\u201d into Couesnon\u2019s real saxophones. I also think they were throwing out a lot of ideas to see if any would stick so they\u2019d build some market share in the US.<\/p>\n

Hey, they were one of the largest manufacturers in France, but the real sax-related money was in the US.<\/p>\n

I also know that Couesnon more-or-less insisted in their ads that their sax\/clarinet\/oboe variants were \u201creal\u201d instruments, not toys.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That would make sense, since if you compare the Saxie at the top of the page, to the original patent drawing, you\u2019ll notice that Couesnon\u2019s version has a couple of keys in addition to the open tone holes. But just what do those extra keys do?<\/p>\n

The answer to that question can be found in the following description of the instrument by a Saxie owner. Michael contacted me in Spring 2012, and provided the following description of this interesting, vintage, French, saxophone-shaped instrument:<\/p>\n

It is pitched in C and has six tone holes and two keys, an F sharp trill, and a register key. Like a sax, the Saxie overblows on the octave. As there are no bell keys, the lowest note being D below the first line of the stave, the instrument is vented by two large holes at the foot, the bell being added purely for appearance purposes.<\/p>\n

It is manufactured from unlacquered brass and has a brass one-screw ligature. It works well with a clarinet reed and it is assumed this was the intention as these would have been the most readily available to the students for whom this instrument was clearly intended\u2014as a half-way house between the recorder and the sax.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Couesnon Saxie is quite rare. However despite that, 2 appeared on eBay in the late summer\/early fall of 2012 in very rapid succession. I think the first passed under the radar of most people. It sold for a mere $160.50.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

 Source: homiept0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second Saxie garnered more attention, and a much higher price. It sold for $469.00. It should be noted that it was dent and solder free however.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\n

 Source: tutdave<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2014 the following Couesnon Saxie appeared for sale on eBay. Although it had a couple of dents, it still sold for $250.00. However, the dents are pretty minor, and the horn is decent shape otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"1\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"2\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"7\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"6\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"5\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"3\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"4\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"8\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"9\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Source: azzael-13 on eBay.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: homiept0 The Couesnon Saxie finds its roots back to the June 3, 1924 patent application of Frederick B. Hammann. Hammann described his little invention like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":3831,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5257","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P30OPe-1mN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5257\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/version5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}