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Discussion starter · #22 · (Edited)
Good morning,

I've now got nearly fifty entries on the spreadsheet.
No obvious system re the 3 digit number, Vries1 suggests it helps match necks, although it is also on one piece sopranos. Need more 3 digit examples.
The 10XXX could be a 1928 'fad' of labelling actual saxophone serial numbers. 10,000-odd saxophones manufactured by 1928 is a reasonable production.
The 5XXXX numbers are spread across the saxes and brass instruments (and one example seen on flute) (www.brasshistory.net/Couesnon%20Dating%20List.pdf), it seems to ONLY apply to instruments stamped with the Monopole logo, and on saxophones was discontinued after the 193-something restructure.
There seems to be a few years where the person responsible for stamping misplaced the grenade stamp...
The 10XXX and 5XXXX numbers sync well enough, although there are examples (10278/53332 and 10280/53333, and 10295/53457) which make me think that the stamping was done in two different areas of the factory, the 10X at the sax station, before being carted over to someone else and added to a pile to be stamped 5XXXX, where the order may have been upset.

Have I answered any questions? Well, I've kinda answered mine. Initially, having a 3digit number on the ferrule of the baritone sax, and a 5 digit number on the bell, I assumed the 3 digit to be a serial number and, wait for it, maybe the 5 digit number was the military number of the person who played the saxophone...? That's definitely not it :LOL:
I think the 5XXXX number can be taken as the Monopole serial number, across all instruments. The 3 digit number which makes no consecutive or chronological sense, could be a factory number, as Dirk (Vries1) suggested. Not all companies added serial number (my Jerome Thibouville Lamy alto has none), so perhaps, in a meeting in 1928, it was decided to add saxophone serial numbers, like their contemporaries, to the instruments, and this is what the 10XXX number is.

Far from over, I'd love to know if anyone with early Couesnons has a 3 digit serial number on the ferrule that is matched by an engraving under the neck cork, for example, to maybe settle that mystery. So keep the pictures coming and keep the theories coming! :D
EDIT: 2nd sax down, 12951, IS monopole, NOT short (stoopid autofill)
Image
 
Well done for your work and I will suggest it to you if you find it useful.
There is this classification that I use, it seems justified to me before type and numbers.

Exposition de Paris 1889.
Exposition de Paris 1900.
With pomegranate. Fournisseur de l'armée et des beaux arts.
Without pomegranate, fournisseur de l'armée.
Without pomegranate, fournisseur de l'armée et des beaux arts.
Without pomegranate, fournisseurs des beaux arts, du conservatoire national et de l'armée.
With pomegranate, fournisseurs des beaux arts, du conservatoire national et de l'armée.
105 rue Lafayette.


On the 1912 catalog from Couesnon:
"For an increase of 50 francs, Monopole saxophones are supplied with a single-tip octave key."
This does not add anything to the dating.

Cordialement.
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
Merci JeanJacques! I didn't save any of the pictures from the research, but I'll go back and see what correlation there is. Bound to be something, either between dates or models.

50 francs was a LOT of money for an octave key, no? :oops: Just did a currency convert and it's, like, 600 euros!
 
A 1902 soprano, no serial number.

 
Other listings
Here are the Couesnon i find in Wallapop
Saxo alto Cuesnon ParĂ­s 1921 de segunda mano por 250 EUR en Viladecans en WALLAPOP
¡Gran oportunidad! Saxo alto Cuesnon París 1921 de segunda mano por 250 EUR en Viladecans. Uno de los primeros saxofones que se hicieron en el siglo XX. lo fabricó cuesnon Paris en 1921. número de serie 713. saxofon completamente restaurado con un buen sonido al que se añade un g
es.wallapop.com
es.wallapop.com
SaxofĂłn Alto Couesnon Vintage de segunda mano por 600 EUR en Braga en WALLAPOP
¡Gran oportunidad! Saxofón Alto Couesnon Vintage de segunda mano por 600 EUR en Braga. Saxofón alto Couesnon vintage, serie NR 7091. Presenta señales de uso y necesita atención. - Modelo: Couesnon - Serie: NR 7091 - Tipo: Saxofón Alto - Estado: Usado, necesita calibración
es.wallapop.com
es.wallapop.com
SAXO COUESNON de segunda mano por 1.800 EUR en GandĂ­a en WALLAPOP
¡Gran oportunidad! SAXO COUESNON de segunda mano por 1.800 EUR en Gandía. MONOPOLE CONSERVATOIRE. N°serie 4594
es.wallapop.com
es.wallapop.com
SaxofĂłn de segunda mano por 400 EUR en Merza en WALLAPOP
¡Gran oportunidad! Saxofón de segunda mano por 400 EUR en Merza. Saxofón antiguo de la marca francesa Couesnon. Zapatillas, corchos, fieltros, muelles …. nuevos, preparado por luthier profesional. Con estuche Solo venta en persona
es.wallapop.com
es.wallapop.com
 
Excellent links from @PigSquealer ! I didn't know that site.

#1 fits in the period investigated in the current thread.

#2, #3, #4 are all post-WW2 models (very different design), and according to my overview of that series, from the period 1950-1955.
 
#1 fits in the period investigated in the current thread.

#2, #3, #4 are all post-WW2 models (very different design), and according to my overview of that series, from the period 1950-1955.
I hope you guys saving pictures and cataloging all the information. Links or sales listings are short lived.

Here is a good example to compare the one in post #22

 
I wasn't expecting to go into the depth that I did, so I'll be trawling back through everything again to save pics. D'oh!
Fwiw I have a little over 12,000 pictures in my archive. Of those fewer than 300 are SOP & Baritone’s.
 
What's missing here are photos.

Here is an alto with left bell keys, RTH and an odd G# mechanism; which is a Vega imported from France by a Boston firm.

When was this sax manufactured, and/or whatever else can be told of the instrument?

3721 is the number given, stamped into the bell.

 
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