Martin Handcraft Imperial saxophones
Made 1933 - 1936 (Ser# 106k - 116k) Classification: Professional
I let the words of the rightfull owner speak for themselves, as I had no knowledge of this type until he told me. I think you could call him an expert in this field.
"This is the very rare early 1930's Martin Imperial,Handcraft model.
The sax was made right before, and simultaneous with, the Committee,early 30's.
It is very heavy and has workmanship as good as any sax.
It plays as well as my Conn art-deco and New Buescher Aristocrat altos from the 1930's.
This is a professional horn."
Design features changed
During the production period you can see a shift in the design of the left pinky-cluster.
Also from serialnumber 112K on the left thumbrest design is changed to the heartshaped rest.
There is a very nice page on this on doctorsax.biz
More pictures (click to enlarge)
Some characteristics (click to enlarge)
Engraving
The keyguards of the low-B and Bb keys
The keyguards of the low-c key
Left pinky clusters
right pinky clusters
The thumbrests voor left thumb (the right one is fixed as you can see on the keyguard pics)
The body to bell brace
Necks
