This is an amazing rarity; 1960 Mark VI tenor, the exact serial 85000, made in celebratory satin “sable” (sand finish) silver plate and glass accents, an expensive special order option.  This horn lived an active life and does show wear indicating just how great it was (is).  I have done many special restoration projects on this horn, soldered the bow to body, resoldered the failed neck receiver, replaced most of the worn pearls and then finally a vast overhaul.  It originally came to me with black ‘roo pads’ in it, and plenty of key slop.  I did many special jobs on the horn but resisted taking those pads out since they were not old, but the horn always lacked some resonance, sort of a deflating kind of feeling rather than the power we might hope for in 85k.  I finally did surrender and did a whole job on it with my treated pads and special setup.  Now it is blasting, bright and powerful as expected.  Moral of the story- please don’t use roo pads.  They suck.

Aside from that, this is just that amazing actual 85k tenor the only one with the perfect number (HAH!) and it plays every bit as amazing as we imagine.  I did somewhat of a silver polish on this after I allowed it to turn black over several years and it was already a lot of work.  I will just let it go black I guess from here on in.  I took a quick set of pics before it turns totally black again.