This unique saxophone (AS109) is very special indeed.... Built by Conn for Wurlitzer (serial prefix W). Most likely built at the end of the Roaring 1920´s. This one has very distinct keywork modifications, is gold plated and has full-bell engraving. I've never seen that before! Fortunately, the previous owner (collector) sent along a lot of information about this sax: see the full description and the beautiful photos under AS109.
Very hard to find : a 6M Ladyface war-horn in the VIII-version, silver plated and in very good condition! Not many horns were built during WW2, with only a handful of the 6M VIII saxes. It has a larger VIII identification both on the body and the neck, compared to the standard VIII stamp. On the neck it´s upside down, typical for these larger VIII stamp…. Serial 311723 was built early 1945, when the USA troops were entering Germany and the Japanese army suffered heavy losses.
One of the rarest Conn saxophones is undoubtedly the 18M stretched soprano. Some general information :
This 10M Ladyface has serial number 307337 and was built in mid-1942. So this is a so-called war-horn (from WW2), from the time when Conn built very few musical instruments. However, the sax has no additional US engraving on the bell and was therefore not built for a US military band. I suspect the sax was already largely built during the outbreak of WW2 (Pearl harbour attack in December 1941) and left the factory in 1942 as one of the very last ´normal´ 10M saxes.
During WW2, Conn produced only a very limited number of saxophones: the factory was almost entirely used to produce, in particular, altimeters for the US Air Force. Most of the saxophones built between late 1941 and late 1945 were intended for US military bands (these then had the US engraving on the bell) and special orders.
