Alto saxophone (E-flat)
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Like showgirls and courtesans, the saxophone’s body was sometimes adorned with jewels in the 1920s and ’30s. Embellishments of this type distinguish performers and unite body and instrument in a single persona, foreshadowing the rhinestone-studded costumes and instruments of Liberace. Many high-end band instruments were also richly engraved in a style that recalls tattoo art. The imagery often includes sensuous female figures, as with the mythological scene of Leda seduced by Zeus as a swan on this saxophone's bell.
Artwork Details
- Title: Alto saxophone (E-flat)
- Maker: C.G. Conn Ltd.
- Date: ca. 1922
- Medium: Gold plated brass, mother-of-pearl, clear-glass jewels
- Dimensions: Total height straight line – 24 9/16 in.
Total height curve from above from neck to bottom – 30 1/4 in.
Total height of body straight line – 21 1/2 in.
Bell diameter – 4 3/4 in. - Classification: Aerophone-Reed Vibrated-single reed cylindrical
- Credit Line: National Music Museum, South Dakota; Board of Trustees, 2002
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments