Just when we thought that we had seen all the names that Dörfler & Jörka had stencilled their Toneking and The New King clone horns under, yet another turns up. This morning, while browsing for vintage horns, I happened across this Condor tenor on the German eBay site.

     Source: boplover

Just a quick glance gives the sax away as a D&J, and not a J. Keilwerth. The key guards with their mother of pearl, or erstaz MOP buttons, are a tell-tale sign, as is the engraving. I can recognize those mountain peaks anywhere…

     Source: boplover

Like many owners/sellers of the D&J horns, boplover thinks he has himself a genuine JK there. But as the old saying goes: Close, but no cigar.

Here is how the seller describes this D&J-made Condor tenor:

Julius Keilwerth stencil CONDOR vintage Tenor Saxophone serialnumber:10538 rare tenor saxophone from the 1950s built in Western Germany by Julius Keilwerth it has the same features,the short solid thumbrest and the rest of the construction is similar as JK [emphasis added] some minor dings,needs repadding and welding on one place:the brace between bell and body rolled toneholes gold finish is gone for the greater part,nice engraving on the bell huge sound as all Keilwerth tenors have,this will be a monster horn after an overhaul no case,sold as is.

Note that even the seller states that the construction is similar to a Keilwerth—not identical. As I’ve pointed out many times, Dörfler & Jörka made copies of The New King and Toneking saxophones. However, these were not JK stencils since they were not made by Keilwerth, which is why these saxes are different than true JK-made horns.

  Source: boplover

The serial number, 10538, also doesn’t fit into the Keilwerth serial number system, since clearly this sax was not made in 1937. (Keilwerth was still in Graslitz, and made saxophones that looked something like this at the time.) The serial number does however fit with known D&J numbers. This Condor tenor would be circa 1955.

If you’d like to read all about D&J, and the saxophones that they built, be sure to check out the Dörfler & Jörka page on my website. If you’re interested in reading about Julius Keilwerth saxophones, I have my newly completed JK sections that might offer you something different from the same old, same old.

For photos of the above-mentioned brands, I literally have hundreds. If you’d like to see some D&J horns, check out some of the 900+ images in the Dörfler & Jörka gallery in Bassic Sax Pix. If you’d like to compare those to the horns that they were copied from, be sure to check out the Toneking and The New King galleries.

As far as the Condor tenor currently for sale on eBay goes, the seller has bids set to start at €300.00. (xe.com currently estimates that to be $384.44 US.) At the time of writing there were no bids on the horn yet. The auction is set to run until September 14.

Although I’ve noted so many of these Dörfler & Jörka saxophones over the past 18 or so months—under so many different stencil names—that they have been proven to be anything but rare, this René Dumont tenor on eBay currently is interesting for a couple of reasons.

     Source: jbstreasures35

Besides the fact that it doesn’t look like it’s gone through hell as a student band instrument, it, unlike most other D&J horns I’ve seen, still has its original mouthpiece.

     Source: jbstreasures35

Unfortunately, most of the D&J horns being resold today no longer have their original mouthpieces. Therefore it is unclear what kind of mouthpiece D&J routinely supplied with their horns. However, this René Dumont mouthpiece is most likely the one that came with this horn.

It should be noted that René Dumont didn’t only use D&J as a source for their horns—although these vintage, German, Keilwerth clone horns were by far and away the most common. The French, saxophone-only manufacturer Pierret, was also a supplier for at least some of René Dumont’s saxophones.

Presumably René Dumont wanted consistency across its various brands of stencil horns when it came to mouthpieces, hence the René Dumont mouthpiece we see here. However, this is only an educated guess on my part.

Another thing that’s interesting about this sax is the condition of its original faux, alligator skin case.

     Source: jbstreasures35

Here’s how the seller describes this vintage, Keilwerth clone horn:

You are bidding on a Gorgeous Vintage Rene Dumont Tenor Saxophone, I believe this is a stencil work of Keiwerth, It is marked made in Western Germany. Serial # is marked on both the neck and body of the sax, sax also has rolled tone holes. It is in Fantastic condition, almost like a new sax, but there is some finish wear on the backside of the sax. There are no Dents or Dings, pads a soft and have plenty of life left in them. Very nice playing and looking saxophone, comes W/ Very Nice Rene Dumont Made in France Mouthpiece, as well as Orig. Alligator Skin Hard case.

  Source: jbstreasures35

If you’re a regular reader of my blog—or have done any research on the brands in question—you’ll know that these D&J horns were not Keilwerth stencils, but were instead clones of Julius Keilwerth’s The New King model (since they were lacking a high F# key.) You can read the full story about these Dörfler & Jörka saxophones on the D&J page on the main portion of my site.

The auction for the vintage, René Dumont tenor runs until July 21. At the time of writing, there were 4 bids in this German, JK clone. The high bid was $102.50.