Chicago, Illinois
Reiffel & Husted

Metals (Brass)
ca. Early 1920’s
Length: 36 inches
Wind Instruments – Woodwind Instruments – Single Reed – Saxophone

Engraved on Slide Sax: Reiffel & Husted / Pat Pend /  Chicago /  Serial Number 1004

One of the most unusual saxophone manifestations to make its way into jazz, was the slide sax (a kind of hybrid amalgamation of the saxophone and the trombone).  What makes it so unique is that it has both tone holes and a slide.  The slide extends out and locks so the saxophone slide can move throughout all the tone holes as you watch the name of the note names you are sliding to, directly in front of you.   Snub Mosely (1905-1981) was a key exponent who played this awkward device with equally shaky intonation.

Reiffel & Husted was first a successful silversmith company in Chicago (1911).  Then in 1918, they began producing bugles, due to World War I demands.  This lead to the production of cornets, trumpets, trombones, and various brass instruments.  Then, Carl Reiffel applied for a patent of the ‘Royal Slide Sax’ and was granted it on June 24, 1924.  By then the instrument was already in production, advertised, and available for sale, as shown here with ‘Pat Pend’.

Resource:  Paul Cohen (July/August 1994). “Vintage Saxophones Revisited – The Royal Slide Saxophone”. Saxophone Journal: 6-8. “ROYAL SLIDE SAXOPHONE”