Well according to this announcement from Hohner, in 1968 a Hohner President alto cost $380. At the time this sax was a 2 tone model, keyed to high F#.
Source: books.google.co.ve
According to The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, $380 in 1968, translates into $2,410.74 in 2011.
It would be very interesting to compare this price to the price of the other Keilwerth saxophone of the day. Does anyone know what the J. Keilwerths were selling for? 1968 was of course the very tail end of the President production, and was also the year of Max Keilwerth’s death.
This particular version of the President would have the newer features such as those on this horn, that was recently sold by Mark Wiseman, from The Little Sax Shop. To find out more about the features of the various versions of the Hohner President, check out the Hohner page on the main portion of my site.
Thanks very much to one of my regular blog readers, Daniel from Venezuela, who found this announcement in the December 1968 edition of Boys’ Life, and sent me the link.
I remember buying a silver Hohner tenor president in Germany with a gold washed bell for less than 1000DM=250USD in Germany in 1965 serial 11xxx. Nice horn. I think the alto cost about 40% less.
Hi there. Welcome to my site.
You have inspired me dig through some new materials I was sent from a fellow in Austria. It has some interesting price comparisons between the various saxophones that were for sale in Germany during the first half of the 20th century. The catalogue pages that I was sent, show some patterns that I did not expect to see.
With regards to your tenor, I assume you no longer have it? Or are you still the owner?
I am fairly new to Hohner ownership. I bought my tenor 3 years ago, and my alto a year after that. My Hohners are 2 of my favourite saxophones. Their voices are unique in the vintage sax world, and their looks are definitely not the same old, same old. It’s a shame that MK’s work is so underappreciated.
Since I also own Tonekings from the same era, I can say with 100% certainty that the Max’s horns are every bit as good as his brother Julius’. In some ways, prefer the Hohner President over the Toneking. It just depends in what setting I’m playing, and what sound I’m looking for.
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for providing me with the inspiration for today’s blog post…helen
Edit: It took longer than expected, so I didn’t post the article until the following day.