Very,Very cool. so how do these two slices of Pie sound??? and the F is interesting also!!Bowing

Wow! Those bells are huge! Nice rare cymbals! The largest I've seen so far.

I'm assuming these are the property of the orchestra. PSO....hmmmm....

Philadelphia? Pittsburg? Poughkeepsie???

Nobody really knows what that "F" means. I took a wild guess and figured those might be for cymbals sold directly out of the foundry as opposed to out of the Gretsch warehouse, but who knows for sure? Nobody.

[COLOR="DarkRed"]Yup...ya' hardly ever see old K Constantinoples that big...what are the weights ?????[/COLOR]

Pittsburgh Symphony

They've been with the orchestra for many years (not sure how many). I'll weigh them sometime this week. We'll be using them for a Bruckner symphony.

They are VERY heavy and thick. It took some time getting used to playing them.

I will say that Zildjian has come very close to the same sound with their new line of K-Symphonic plates. It's not 'exactly' the same sound, but it's the closest I've heard yet from anything being made today. We've used some of their 22"s quite often when we need to obliterate our way through 100 musicians playing full tilt.

I've got several old K's with the 'F' stamped in . . . I guess it's a mystery. Here is an example of another. This one is much more clearly stamped.

Here's a few more:

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/type3%20F.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/F%203.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/F%202.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/Const%20F%20stamp_1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/F1.jpg[/img]

...and a couple of anomalous ones:

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/V.JPG[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/VV.jpg[/img]

[img]http://photos.imageevent.com/drumaholic/kerope/websize/Const%20pair%20letters_1.jpg[/img]

Nicely done Drumaholic.

I've never seen an 'F' stamped on any old K's except the oldest stamps. That is: the one's that read . . .

(star and crescent)

Made in Turkey

Zildjian company/family name in funny script

Constantinople & Cie

Trademark

I just call these stamps "last Constantinople" stamps. Is there a more specific name like the "Istanbul" K varations?

It seems the last example you posted could have been an after-market stamp. The 'F' is a different stamp than the previous ones. Take a look at the center bar on the 'F'. All the example we've posted so far have only a small flare at the end of the center bar. The last one has a far more pronounced un-and-down center bar.

There are many different types of Constantinoples. Some have been named just like the Istanbul K's, but there are several that still await proper classification and naming.

And you are right about that last example. It was stamped later. That designation is likely to be for a military unit that these belonged to.

HF RA1 = Her Majesty's Fusiliers Regiment A, 1st company....or something like that.

And all 3 of the last examples were stamped outside the foundry. Only those with the "F" stamp were imprinted by K. Zildjian.

2nd largest pair I know of after the Philly one.

Very nice...

What are the weights?