Unfortunately I have to tell you that this is neither a Zildjian nor a Constantinople. It's an Italian made cymbal masquerading as one. There were many of these produced probably in the 1920's and 1930's designed to fool the unwary into thinking they were getting the genuine article. Most of these come out of Europe. Maybe that's why many serious symphonic players went directly to Istanbul to buy theirs. For this reason and also most likely so that they could chose from a several pairs and hear what they were getting.

I call these ersatz K's.

Thanks for the info,...

Although it's not the genuine article, I find it still remarkable that it's 1920's or 1930's made and ending up in some Belgian dude 's cymbal-bag almost a century later. I don't even remember how I got it. I believe I received it from a friend, together with some junk cymbals. (Thunder, broken Paiste's, etc....)

I live in Belgium, quite central-north Europe, but with a big Italian population. After the 2nd world-war, the Italians came to Belgium to work in the coal-mines, that's maybe how the piece ended up here.

Regards

Stef

Sounds like that could be a logical explanation.

Those Italians sure got around. Some of those that were captured in WWII by the Brits and were being held over there in England ended up working for them making cymbals for Premier.

I see those on German ebay every now and then, so they are probably not very rare in Europe.