The Bassic Sax Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Pierret’

Since launching the newly revised version of my site—bassic-sax.ca—I have been quietly adding pages to it. As of this this morning the main portion of my site contains 169 published pages, with another 32 in draft mode. But have no fear, there is a site map to help with navigation.

     Photo by Helen Kahlke

One of the areas that I have been working on extensively is the Pierret section of my site. Besides the Pierret information page, I have also added an extensive Pierret Gallery. This gallery features almost all of the models that have been identified so far by either saxophone historian Pete Hales, or myself.

The list of models in the Pierret gallery include:

• Artiste
• Artiste Competition
• Concerto
• Concerto with Virtuor
• Embassy
• Modele 1-7
• Modele 42
• Modele D’Artistes
• Olds Stencil Saxophones:

1. Parisian
2. Parisian Ambassador

• Oxford
• Santy Runyon
• Standard
• Super Artiste
• Unlabelled
• Vibrator
• “Corps Embouti”

     Source: eBay.com

I am still missing photos for many of the numbered models of Pierrets. Specifically, the ones that I don’t have photos for are: Modele 1, 2, 3, 4, & 7.

The other 2 identified models that I currently do not have any photos of are the Virtuor, and the Super 8. If you have any of these models—or another model of Pierret or Pierret stencil that’s not listed—and would like to share some photos, I would really like to hear from you. Thanks!

So if you are a fan of the Pierret brand of saxophone, I hope that this expanded section of my site gives you an interesting new resource to peruse.

Over the next little while I will write further articles which each note another brand of obscure, vintage saxophone that has its own section on my site. These articles will be published when I have the sections finalized enough to my liking. (I’m a wee bit anal.)

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

For all of you Pierret fans out there, here is one that I thought was rather intriguing: a vintage Pierret alto “Corps Embouti” also stamped with the name of the music store that ordered it. The bell reads: Johann Michl & Sohn Graslitz Sudetenland.

     Source: eBay.com

Early on, Pierret had a habit of keeping their own name on their horns, while at the same time engraving the name of the ordering store. For example, my Concerto with Virtuor model alto, is stamped with the store front name C. Jeuffroy.

While many C. Jeuffroys have popped up over the past decade, this alto currently on eBay however, is the first Johann I have seen. This leads me to believe that they never ordered as many saxophones as C. Jeuffroy did.

Rather than quote the whole ad—which is nothing more than a direct quote from saxpics—I’ll just skip to what the seller actually wrote himself:

I personally do not know anything about this sax, and I do not know anyone who plays this kind of instrument, so you will need to make your judgment based on appearance only. A friend has estimated the time frame for production to be around the 1920s, but I don’t know how to verify this. There is one small dent on the very bottom curve of the horn, but other than that it appears to have weathered the years rather well. Please feel free to email with any questions that might help you to clarify the value.

___________________________________

Apr 09, 2010

Q: Hi, In the third picture from the top, the bell looks out of round. Is it visibly distressed? Any signs of repair/resoldering elsewhere on the horn? Thanks, B

A: I will take some closer images of any areas that seem to have damage or possible repair and post them. Probably not until tomorrow morning, but I will get to it as soon as possible. Thanks for your interest.

___________________________________

On Apr-10-10 at 08:35:46 PDT, seller added the following information:

At the request of one watcher, I am including some additional close up photos of specific areas of the sax. There is one spot where the plating has rubbed off, and there are actually two dents on the bottom of the horn — I have included a photo that shows both together, and then a super close-up of the biggest one. I cannot see any areas where it appears any welding was done. Hope this helps!

The first thing I noticed immediately was that this sax was keyed from high F to low Bb.

     Source: eBay.com

I can see why the question was asked about the bell. It does look a bit like it is bent. Is it only the photo? Is it the horn?

     Source: eBay.com

The extra photo provided by the seller certainly doesn’t help clear up the question for me. If anything it just confuses me a bit more. Is that a crease, or just a reflection on the right lower portion? Most likely only a reflection.

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

Oops, it looks like the neck strap broke, or it fell some other way. But in any event, this photo shows the “one small dent on the very bottom curve of the horn”. (Emphasis added.) While certainly fixable, it isn’t that small.

The seller did realize that the sax does have a 2nd dent. Given this damage, it’s quite possible that the bell is indeed out of round. When the sax fell it could easily have damaged the bell as well. Obviously this horn needs a total restoration, including dent removal.

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

The horn’s neck is very interesting. It has a micro-tuner. That was quite common in certain Pierret models, and was even seen in this very ancient-looking Unlabelled tenor that someone recently found in Mexico.

The other thing that’s interesting about the neck is that it has ridging as a neck guard. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it on a Pierret before, but certainly that feature was common on other European brands such as Kohlert and Hammerschmidt.

     Source: eBay.com

The horn still has its original case.

     Source: eBay.com

This is a great shot of the store label that is still affixed to the inside of the case.

     Source: eBay.com

If you’re a Pierret lover, then this alto is a very cool find. The auction for this Pierret ”Corps Embouti alto saxophone, made for the Johann music store in Graslitz, Sudetenland, runs until April 14. Bids are to start at $345.00. At the time of writing there were no bids yet on this unique piece of Pierret history.  

If you would like to see some other examples of “Corps Embouti” models, check out my Pierret Gallery. You will see that the model varied a great deal. Some horns were only keyed to low B, while others had no rollers, but rather the keywork of Adolphe Sax horns. Finishes varied a great deal as well. Pierret was a company that seemed to believe in offering a great number of options.

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

Now here’s a bit of a rare bird: a Pierret Super Artiste baritone saxophone. The owner has it listed it on eBay at the moment, and there seems to be no reserve price.

     Source: eBay.com

This is what the seller says about this vintage Pierret bari:

For Sale: Vintage Pierret Baritone Saxophone – Low Bb to high F. This horn really cranks! I’ve been using it on my Blues/R&B type gigs, and it’s done well for me (the mouthpiece I’ve been using is a Jody Jazz DV size “8″ tip opening). Unfortunately, more and more of my gigs are requiring the low “A” on charts. As a result I’ve purchased a low A baritone and this horn is now a backup.

It’s difficult to ascertain the manufacture date, but from what I’ve read I would venture a guess around the early 1960s. The horn has wear consistent with its age, but very few dings and 80%+ original laquer. There’s a very small ding on the neck-pipe which is pictured. Sometime in the past, the thumb rest was replaced with a Yamaha version (probably for ergonomics). I had the key guard above the thumb rest replaced – it was missing when I got the horn.

The horn comes with a Mount Vernon sax case. Shipping is flat rate $80 to lower 48 states. Sorry, no overseas shipping. I prefer PayPal.

Below is a blurb about Pierret horns:

“L. Pierret & Cie.” started making horns in 1906, per the New Langwill Index. They were a saxophone-only shop outside of Paris and made a variety of stencils for Olds, Paul Beuscher, Santy Runyon and others. Their chief designers appear to have been Henri & Roger Junck.

Some horns, particularly early models, are stamped (and I translate) “From the former workers of Millereau and Besson”. This MAY indicate that L. Pierret was formed from workers from these companies or was a wholly owned subsidiary or some such: we know, from the New Langwill Index, that Millereau was purchased by Selmer in1931 (the correct spelling is in the PDF, if you want it) and that Besson was purchased by SML in the late 1940’s, so it’s not like Millereau or Besson “morphed” into Pierret.

Pierret stopped making horns around 1972. Some people have put forth the suggestion that Pierret really stopped producing horns around 1963 — which coincides with the last known Olds Parisian models — and all other instruments were serialized later and/or stamped with “Parisian Ambassador”. At the very least, Pierret’s last patent was in 1971. (Copied from Pierret Blog)

Actually it wasn’t copied from a blog, but rather it was copied from the Pierret History page on the Vintage Saxophone Gallery website. Blogs and websites are different. (OK, I realize I’m being picky, but there is a difference. If you’d like to know what those differences are, I’ve written a couple of paragraphs about this on my newly revamped website.)

Alright, back to this interesting Pierret… The photos show us a bari that we don’t get to see very often. Since Pierret is now defunct, and company records are long gone, we have no idea how many baritone saxophones Pierret made.

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

I think it’s interesting that Pierret has a pearl button for its front F key. Much earlier models—such as my Concerto with Virtuor model alto—had a metal spatula key for its front F. This option is much more ergonomically friendly than a button. A number of modern horns have gone back to this type of spatula.

Pierret was ahead of its time by many decades when they had a metal spatula key. Too bad they switched and became just like the rest of the “kids on the block”.

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

Here is a good shot of the replacement right thumb rest. The owner calls it a Yamaha. To me it looks like a Selmer. But heh, I admit what I know virtually jack about Yamaha horns, so my Selmer bias is probably influencing me.

     Source: eBay.com

Here’s a nice photo of the chromatic F# key guard that was added by the owner, to replace the one that was missing.

     Source: eBay.com

     Source: eBay.com

The auction for this Pierret Super Artiste bari runs until April 11. At the time of writing are 2 bids on this vintage sax. The high bid is $405.00.

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.