Lafleur was one of the brand names that Boosey & Hawkes used for their saxophones. Over the years, I have seen Lafleur saxophones made by a number of very different manufacturers.
- B&S made some—Stephen Howard reviewed a low A bari on his site;
- Amati made them by the boatloads;
- Hammerschmidt made the Lafleur De Luxe;
- Beaugnier stencilled its Special Perfect for the cause as well;
- And finally, there is this quirky Varsity alto that belongs to my friend. It is engraved J.R. Lafleur & Sons. This sax’s pedigree has stumped some of the best saxophone historians.
Then the other day I received the following Lafleur price list in the mail from a fellow in Sri Lanka. It came along with a late 1970s, J.K. catalogue and price list that he sent me.
I’m not sure what the connection to the JK materials is, since this looks nothing like the JK material, and this was obviously torn out of larger book of some kind. None the less, I find this really interesting.
The horns depicted in these photographs look nothing like the Lafleurs we see floating around on eBay and the likes:
- Both of these saxes have low C key shapes that are very JK-like in appearance.
- While the tenor has its chromatic F# around the back, like some J. Keilwerth horns of earlier years did, the alto has it on the side, like the Tonekings & The New Kings did.
- The tenor has a Selmer-style bell to body support ring, while that of the alto looks more Kohlert-like.
- I don’t know what the name of the ligature style/brand is that is on the tenor sax, but it appears to be the same as those that came stock on many mid-century German saxes, including JKs.
Although there is no date printed on this catalogue page, based on the prices, I’d say that this likely predates the 1979 price list for the Julius Keilwerth saxophones. I am curious though, by how much.
If you have any ideas who might have made these Lafleur horns, feel free to throw some names out. I’m wondering if these were built with parts from multiple manufacturers. It is a bit of a head scratcher. 
Thank you to Kumar for sharing this piece of vintage saxophone history with us. It is a real test of one’s knowledge of historical, saxophone trivia. 
Hi Helen
My C-Melody is stencilled “Lafleur and Son, Wardour St, London W1”
I’m told it’s a Martin. It dates from after Lafleur was acquired by Boosey and before Lafleur disappeared as an entity to become simply a brand (in 1930) Nice horn – if any C-Melody can be called nice..
LaFelur did not disappear by 1930. In 1933 they moved into Hawkes’ old premises at Denman Street, and were going strong rest of the 1930s. I believe it was not until Post-war that the firm was bought by Boosey & Hawkes
Hi there Chris.
Interesting. I know almost nothing about LaFleur. I should do some research some day.
Fun fact: I ended up with my friend’s mystery Varsity alto that is such an enigma. Over the years research has suggested that it might have actually been made by Hüttl. Not so sure about that, but over the years have stumbled across around 5 saxes that look like it, but most carry the Hüttl name, not Lafleur.
Hi i have a tenor, it has on it
J R Lafleur & son
147 Wardour St London W
Any idea what year it would be?
serial number 6347
Hi Tony. Welcome to Bassic Sax.
I’d have to do some digging, but I can’t recall ever coming across any Lefleur serial # charts. If I do find something, I’ll let you know. In the meantime I’m hoping maybe someone else who frequents my site might have some insight into the brand.
Hi a La Fleur alto just sold on ebay It had Chekoslavakia clearly on the backplus serial no? What can yu tell me about it? Thanks Bopp
Well you don’t provide a link to the auction, so I can’t give you specifics on the horn. But I would say with 99% certainty that it was made by Amati, like these were.
I have just bought a tenor saxophone with JUNIOR engrave on it.
Also Made in GDR With serial number 67223.
Can anybody give me more info about the saxophone please?
In order for me to tell you anything about your horn, I’d need to see some photos of it. You can send them to me at: bassic.sax.ca@gmail.com
Once I’ve looked at them I’d be happy to tell you what I can about your horn.
Hi. Two years on from last comment, but I own an Alliance (by J R Lafleur and sons, Paris London, New York) Tenor serial about 65xxx that has been positively identified as a Kohlert product from the (early?) sixties. Silver keys over a laquered body, rolled tone holes, big sound. Some time about ten years ago I went out looking to replace it and having gone up the ranges I was testing to find something better I gave up after playing a Yanigasawa T901 and went home with my old sax and a big smile 😀 … haven’t looked for a new tenor since, but would pick up a matching alto if I ever found one at the right price.
Hi Stewart. Welcome to my site.
I’m not surprised that your Alliance was ID’d as a Kohlert. As I mention in my comment below, I notice a strong resemblance between the Alliance alto shown in the catalogue page here, and my Kohlert Regent from 1963.
It’s interesting that you like your horn so much. These later-model Kohlerts don’t have nearly the reputation that earlier ones do. Many people consider them to be sub-par, but I have to say I really like my Regent. Is it as well made as my Selmer Mark VI. Well no, but then it wasn’t in the same league either. Kohlert wasn’t trying to compete with Selmer at the time.
That said, my Kohlert is likely entirely original, and hasn’t been overhauled since new. Its pads are still the original ones, and it hasn’t seen the inside of a shop in decades. But this bad boy can blow like no other horn in my tenor collection. It’s so loud our Hammond player complained about my volume. Now that made me very happy. 😈
The one thing I notice every time I play the horn is that the scale is not quite as even as on some of my horns. But again, if I were to take it to the shop and have it looked at, it would play very differently. That’s why I don’t get too excited about it.
All very interesting info. Thanks guys!
Looking at the Alliance again just now, I can’t help but notice how much the bell to body brace looks like that of the Kohlert Regent I have. Even the key guards could be Kohlert-like. It’s hard to be 100% sure from the photos.
The “Swedish” Alliance had high F# key as well. Maybe B&H had a Swedish/Scandinavian saxline another for UK, BRD ….?
Hi Helen.
I worked (x-tra)in a musicstore (in Sweden) in the late 70’s. We sold both Lafluer and Alliance. They were distributed by Boosey & Hawkes Svenska AB. They also distributed Yamaha (21, 32 and 61)and Selmer Bundy.
The Alliance were sold as a German built sax. From what I can recall there were no GDR or BRD stamp on the sax. They had a Selmer like b&b ring and had the high F# key. I think these saxes were built in GDR. I’m not 100 % sure but the tenor felt and sounded like a B&S that I later bought. Maybe the body and keys were made in GDR and put together in west Europe. The sax was very close to another brand that we sold; Schenkelaars !!! They were not bad saxes. Both Schenlaars and And Alliance had a Link like ligature. I have a Schenkelaars soprano that were made in BRD by Keilwerth. The Guban Schenkelaars, I also have an alto, is terrible. Looks ok, but unplayable. So I would go for that the Alliance saxes were a GDR product. But I can be wrong. The Alliance saxes were not sold as Lafluer Alliance just Alliance.
The Lafleur saxes we sold were made by Amati-Denak. They also had “Powertone” stamped on the bell. I was funny, we sold four Amati made saxes in the same shop: Lafluer, Louis Robert, Lignatone and Corton. So I would say that Lafluer in the late 70’s were made by Amati. Again, I can be wrong.
An Alliance tenor costed 2525,00 s e k, Lafleur ts 2300,00 s e k, Yam 21 ts 2975,00 s e k, Yam 61 4700.00 s e k and Selmer Bundy 3050,00 according to the pricelist from August 1978. Both Weltklang and Lignatone (DDR resp Czechoslovakia export brands) had a lower price compared to thier west-europian “stencilbrothers”.
HELEN, just to let you know that I own and perform on a LA FLEUR VARSITY STRAIGHT SOPRANO. Really good horn ,light and with fine tone I also had a LA FLEUR Tenor which I sold long ago but it was not a VARSITY MODEL