Here is an exceptional snare, the only one known to date ...
The brand:
Léon André ANGELLIAUME, known as Léon AGEL (1910 † 1999), is better known to be the hit song author of "Mon amant de St Jean" in 1942 than for having been a Music Publisher, a music store manager and an accordion director school, to Porte Saint Martin in Paris ! Like Paul Beuscher store or Marcel Faivre store, he sold some drums ets produced by Metjazz or Gary that he badged with AGEL store name ... But he also invented instruments ...
Many French collectors had never seen this brand instruments before this snare !! It was a name known through some this era documents ... the PAX brand
The PAX brand logo is a small dog ... it was probably Léon AGEL's dog, who was called "Miss PAX" ...
The snare drum:
With more than 15 lbs of engineering, this snare is very complex ! Léon AGEL wanted to create a snare drum whose top and bottom heads can be adjust with a single screw... and snare wire under each head... An aluminum shell, 2 strainers, 2 wire tensions screws, 2 mufflers, 2 fixed hoops and a big internal tension system...
Some French manufacturers had sometimes inspired by US inventions to create their instrument ...but I've never seen another snare can be tensioned with a single adjustment screw... The patent was filed in November 1944, just a few months after Paris liberation... Given the WWII context and the instrument complexity, this snare was probably produced in a little serie, and this one is numbered 17...
An extremely rare snare, perhaps the last one to exist...
After 35 hours of restoration, this snare regained his beauty !!
A bientôt,
Emmanuel
olDrums Vintage & Custom
http://www.oldrums.fr/