I’m looking for a polished brass tube handrail system for the exterior of a high end home near the water in Southern California. I understand that the quality of the tubing, the fittings and the finish are important as well as a good fabricator. Can you recommend company or mention anything about the proper finish, etc. I’d rather not pick something out without some recommendation. Thanks a bunch.
Try C.R. Laurence at www.crlaurence.com
They are in LA
Also, Julius Blum & Co., Inc. at www.juliusblum.com
Both specialze in that sort of stuff
Oh man are you asking for trouble.
Polished brass should NEVER be used within miles of a body of water. The problem is that it will tarnish very quickly. The worse thing you can do is put a clear laquer coating on it. The coating will pit and it will look horrible.
My advice is to convince them to use stainless steel rather than brass.
In Hawaii some of the high end resort hotels employ a person whose sole job is to go around and polish all the brass hardware, railings, etc. This person has lifetime job security. 
Also check out R&B Wagner at www.wagnercompanies.com and invest in lots of Brasso!
I have to agree with David.
I was going to suggest stainless, but I didn’t want to step on the design.
I will mention that a friend of mine is a naval architect and uses the polished stainless railings on swim platforms on some of the boats in Newport Harbor and they look really good!
He gets them from C.R. Laurence.
I would try and go stainless if possible.
The other option might be to go bronze?
You might get more info from the folks at the Copper Development Association. They’ve got a pretty informative web site and a list of “Tech Folks” and their contact info.
Polished brass needs a fulltime staff to keep it polished; that’s why the navy used to use so much of it, to give sailors something to do in their spare time while at sea. As pointed out, lacquers and other such coatings just make things worse (It has to be removed so the brass can be polished, whether it’s a belt buckle or a tuba.)
One possible alternative is clear powder coating; it’s used on polished brass plumbing fittings. Its advantage is that unlike liquid-applied coatings, it lacks the microscopic pores or channels used by the solvent as it works its way to the surface. Whether it has the UV resistance and salt air durability is another question, but the powder manufacturers should be able to answer that.
I saw some railings (actually not the rails, but the infill) that were gold-plated bronze for a marine exposure. Although this will give rise to some comments about gold-plating the project, I will report that the fabricator indicated that the cost for the gold was negligible (gold-plate coating is very thin) and the product would not tarnish. This assumes that the Owner does not maintain it and no one rubs against it too much. I thought this was very intriguing.