Great stuff man!

-Lee

I once found a pair of 14" K Zildjian made in Constantinople cymbals at an antique store. I used them for years as hi-hats! Had I known they'd be worth this much oh so many years later, I'd have kept them! I'm pretty sure tey were a marching cymbal set originally as they were quite thick and heavy. Sound wise....they were good as hi-hats, but not for much else. BTW.....IIRC I think I paid about $35 for them from the antique store about 25 years ago.....I stopped using them about 10 years ago and traded them in with some other gear to get my current Ludwig kit.....DOH

No kidding,

The bell on that suspended cymbal looks great! Most of the Ks I have that sound the best have a VERY pronounced bell. Some of them are almost comically large - but they sound great.

I also realized that in the pictures those cymbals are shiny - and they seem to be, for lack of a better term, "originally shiny". I've never actually seen Ks that are shiny unless they've been polished or buffed. Kind of cool to see what they looked like new.

By the way guys - since Lee has now joined this thread you should check out his website especially the "gear" section. There are some nice old drums and general gearheaded-ness that I think we can all get behind!

I gotta get me one of those websites!

Usually these cymbals got both a signature and a paper label just like the Istanbul K. old stamps did. But the paper label was a type unique to the Constantinople era:

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/ebayv/Copy%20of%20K.%20Const%20paper%20label.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/elvinscymbals/paper%20label%20Const.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/elvinscymbals/Picture%20032.jpg[/img]

I don't remember a paper label on mine, but I do remember the stampings and they definately said constantinople.......also, they were shiney, but aged shiney...know what i mean? Very tight lathing pattern too......you could hardly tell that they were lathed for that matter!

Look....even the Polish Army digs them:

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/ebaycymbals1/websize/polisharmy%201940qus.jpg[/img]

Hi. Lee.

We had Alan abel clinic last week. He told us that Mr.Abel's 16inch pair was instrument of Tommy Thompson. After Thompson died in Auto accident, His sister took the cymbal under her piano and used it to call people to dinner table! Thompson's sister knew Tommy alwasys liked the cymbal even though he was into Avedis, She kept it for years.

The abel's residency was a mile from Her and were in same music club. So He asked to try it with philly and sure, It worked well. It was about 20years ago.

They paid about nowdays price for her.

I looked for the stamp and It is type 1 constantinople and weigh's 1600-1700gram each. It is wonderfully matched pair with no blemish.

metronome!!!!!!

Those photos can all be found in the Life magazine photo archive, hosted by google: http://images.google.com/hosted/life

Tons of great vintage drum and cymbal photos throughout the archive.

The caption for the original photos:

Robert Kiesow, cymbal player in the orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera House.

Location: New York, NY, US

Date taken: 1944

Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt

You've got to love the guy carrying the metronome on a tray.Yes Sir