{"id":157,"date":"2010-09-27T01:53:18","date_gmt":"2010-09-27T06:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robscott.net\/cymbals\/?page_id=157"},"modified":"2015-02-25T21:40:42","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T03:40:42","slug":"k-constantinople","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/k-constantinople\/","title":{"rendered":"K Zildjian – Constantinople Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"

(29 comments.)<\/font><\/a><\/strong><\/center>
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This timeline of the K Zildjian company’s cymbals stamped with “Constantinople” has been put together intuitively. The dates are quite uncertain and are based on stories correlated with photos, dated drum equipment catalogs, and logic. Oftentimes the dates are simply unknown.<\/center><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Stamp 0 – 1907?<\/h2>\n

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This stamp is not an anomaly<\/a>. The 1907 Dodge Catalog<\/a> shows this stamp (albeit upside down) without any English letters.<\/p>\n

According to my friend +Aziz, the top word looks like ‘Kurwah’ or ‘Kurwiyah’\u2014the root of the word is Kurah or \u0643\u0631\u0629 which means “ball” – Ottoman-Turkish was limited in it’s vowels, and had multiple symbols for the letter ‘z’ (see here<\/a>). The stamp is Ottoman-Turkish for the name “Kerope Zildjian”.<\/p>\n

These stamps are often incomplete. Here is another Stamp 0 that shows more of the bottom right part of the stamp: STAMP 0<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Stamp 1 – 1913?<\/h2>\n

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I think this is the actual first stamp because it lacks many of the later elements, and there are many very old looking cymbals out there with this combination of stamp elements. This one was also stamped “C.D.” next to the stamp. It is 12 inches in diameter, thick, and was described as “before the 1920s” by there person who shared it with me. A commenter below<\/a> says the stamp appears on a cymbal purchased before 1913. In any case this stamp lacks the moon & star, as well as the word “TRADEMARK” from later stamps.<\/p>\n

The earliest cymbals also had a distinct signature under the bell that oftentimes said “K Zildjian & Cie”. See comment 17<\/a> below. <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

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Stamp 2<\/h2>\n

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This stamps uses a different Arabic element, and incorporates the word “Trademark” underneath the other stamp elements. Perhaps it was a stamping error (?) but it is missing the crescent and star seen in later stamps.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Scott Gordon of Carmichael, California for this stamp photo
(see comment section<\/font><\/a> comment #15 below for pictures of the cymbal).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n\n\n
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Stamp 3<\/h2>\n

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This seems to be the smallest star and crescent of any of the stamps out there.<\/p>\n

My friend +Aziz tells me that one of the words in the Turkish\/Arabic “definitely says ‘Sharikat’ which means ‘company’.” Thanks, +Aziz… any other help with translations would be useful. I presume he’s referring to the ” \u0634\u0631 ” which would be ‘Shar’ in the bottom right corner, followed with ” \u0642\u062a ” which would be ‘qat’ to the left.<\/p>\n

Also, these cymbals can rarely be found with the original sticker labels (see: right).<\/td>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stamp 3<\/font><\/h2>\n

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Stamp 4<\/h2>\n

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This one appears to have the thin<\/em> crescent and star that were used in the early Istanbul stamps. It is likely the final Constantinople stamp before they switched over to stamps that label the city as ‘Istanbul’.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Below, there are more images of what I’m calling Stamp 1 (far left), this one shows the different parts of the Arabic text. This stamp is often incomplete. If someone has better ideas about the Constantinople stamps, feel free to let me know. I’m just calling them “stamp 1, 2, 3” according to my judgement. There must be one before this that used no stamp<\/em> but I’ve never heard of one.<\/p>\n

In Stamp 4 (far right), notice how the word “IN” is short in the phrase “MADE IN<\/small> TURKEY”. <\/p>\n

Also, the earlier cymbals to the left are heavy, almost sounding like a bell when struck. The “stamp 5″ on the right was a 16” cymbal weighing 855 grams (paper thin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n

Stamp 1<\/font><\/h4>\n

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Stamp 2<\/font><\/h4>\n

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Stamp 3<\/font><\/h4>\n

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Stamp 4<\/font><\/h4>\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15″ cymbal<\/center><\/td>\n
13″ cymbal<\/center><\/td>\n
14″ cymbal<\/center><\/td>\n
15″ cymbal<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Thanks to Richard Reina for sending the images of the “Stamp 3.” There is little to be learned from the above photos, except that the bell size was very small for some of the Constantinople era cymbals, and they were not perfectly round. The different colors of the cymbals are irrelevant: the cymbals were stored in different environments, and were polished at different times. It is similar to how coins change color\u2014the color of a penny or a peso has nothing to do with the way the coin is made. Photography affects the appearance of color, too. The sizes of the cymbals carry little significance: before the 1940s, no cymbals were larger than 15″ or 16″ diameter. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(29 comments.) This timeline of the K Zildjian company’s cymbals stamped with “Constantinople” has been put together intuitively. The dates are quite uncertain and are based on stories correlated with photos, dated drum equipment catalogs, and logic. Oftentimes the dates are simply unknown. Stamp 0 – 1907? This stamp is not an anomaly. The 1907 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-157","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":131,"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183,"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/157\/revisions\/1183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robscott.net\/cymbals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}