Saxophone Stamp Board

The saxophone is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world. While it is prominent in jazz, it is also a mainstay in classical orchestras and pops up in rock & roll. The saxophone is such a beloved instrument that it appears on postage stamps from many countries.

The Instrument

The innovative Belgian instrument builder Adolph Sax (1814-1894) began developing an instrument that would combine the dexterity if a woodwind with the volume of a brass instrument. His creation was an instrument of brass with a single-reed mouthpiece. The instrument also has a fingering system like a clarinet, but which overblows at an octave. This means that the fingering system stays consistent throughout the instruments register. A clarinet overblows at a twelfth and has different fingerings throughout its range.

Sax would obtain a patent for the new instrument in 1846. His vision was for a whole family of instruments, from bass contra-saxophones to saopranino instruments. While he originally thought the saxophone would be a member of the orchestra, it only became a regular member of that ensemble in the twentieth century. Instead, the saxophone proved to be a perfect vehicle for jazz, a genre that did not exist during Sax’s lifetime.

The Stamps

On this stamp board featuring saxophone stamps, I want to start by showing the Belgian stamp featuring Adolphe Sax himself. There are very few postage stamps that honor instrument builders. Sax is one of those very few and so he gets point of pride on this board that celebrates his most famous invention.

Saxophones

As with other instruments, including the trumpet, countries include saxophones in series of stamps featuring instruments.

Saxophonists

There are many saxophonists (saxophone players) who have been on stamps. These are primarily jazz musicians.

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