May 2024 Update: Check out Bassic Sax Pix for more on C.A. Wunderlich horns, and further examples from 3 different manufacturers.
That’s a very good question. And one I spent quite a lot of time trying to find the answer to this morning.
What sparked my interest in the topic, was this interesting C.A. Wunderlich tenor that’s for sale on the German eBay site.
Source: klangtontechnik
The seller isn’t a sax player, and doesn’t have anything to offer up with regards to information about the horn. He does state that it will likely need some work (I figure a full restoration) before it is playable.
Apparently the sax’s bell is engraved with: C.A. Wunderlich Siebenbrunn Vgtl.
Source: klangtontechnik
This would make sense, because according to the research that I have done, the C.A. Wunderlich company was established:
…in 1854, and flourished in Siebenbrunn, Vogtland until about 1966. According to Dr. Enrico Weller it was established by Carl August Wunderlich (1826 – 1911) who was a skilled brass instrument maker.
Source: C.A. Wunderlich page on rjmartz.com
Multiple other sources that I have come across, including the Forum des Musikinstrumentenmuseums Markneukirchen, state that C.A. Wunderlich did not build their own saxophones, but rather had them stencilled. But the question is by whom?
It is worth noting that there are multiple references in the SOTW archives, to C.A. Wunderlich saxophones with Nazi engraving. However, the 1 saxophone that is shown in the photos, doesn’t bear any resemblance to the current tenor for sale on eBay. This confirms that there were indeed different companies that built horns for C.A. Wunderlich. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell us who built the current tenor up for auction.
An educated guess on my part is that Franz Köhler was the manufacturer. His workshop was located in Markneukirchen, and from roughly 1933 to 1960, built only saxophones. After 1961 his shop only did repairs.
According to the research conducted by Uwe Ladwig, Franz Köhler’s early instruments featured: rolled tone holes, a fork Eb, as well as the G# and C/D trill keys which were typical for the era.¹
Unfortunately I don’t have enough Franz Köhler horns to compare this C.A. Wunderlich to. However, examining the photos of the tenor currently for sale, you can certainly see the features that Uwe mentions. And while other manufacturers like F.X. & G.H. Hüller, et al, also put these features on their horns, the telltale features like the left pinkie cluster, just don’t look like known brands. That’s why I’m betting that this is a Köhler.
Source: klangtontechnik
Hey, I might be totally off-base. If I am, and you can say with certainty who the manufacturer of this C.A. Wunderlich tenor was, please chime in.
If you are interested in making this vintage, German stencil horn yours, you have 3 days to get your bid in. The auction for this C.A. Wunderlich tenor ends on June 3. The Buy It Now price is €495.00, which XE.com estimates to be $612.63 US at the time of writing. The seller is also open to offers though, which surprisingly enough, no one has taken him up on.
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Update: This interesting, if not rather mysterious, tenor did sell on eBay. The price… Only €200.00. For a horn from Germany, that was a deal. It is obviously considerably less than BIN price of €495.00 that the seller was originally asking for.
Kumar, all Germanic saxophones, pre-WWII, look fairly similar. That’s why it’s difficult to tell them apart. Post-WWII, try to compare a Dorfler & Jurka to a Julius Keilwerth :).
I see that Helen’s already posted the same stuff I found on SOTW about these horns: Wunderlich may have made their own horns or they may have had someone build horns for them to stencil. The http://www.museum-markneukirchen.de post isn’t terribly authoritative.
The one interesting reference in the SOTW thread that was interesting was that Wunderlich had a French horn engraved “Germany – U.S.S.R. Occupied.” That’s definitely different. Can’t say I’ve ever seen another horn engraved with that.
Whatever it is, the terms of sale are a tad absonderlich.
I think I’ll pass.
This looks very much like the Hohner President Tenor that I’ve been playing since 1962 except for the key guards and trill keys.The bell shape, big body tube and large key cups on the upper stack are very similar.The Hohner is itself a Max Kielworth stencil, so its probable that most German sax makers followed a common set of specifications.My guess is that this sax will also have the same tone as my Hohner.It looks solidly built and able to withstand heavy use.Definitely pre- 1950s so its probably a stencil made by tech nicians who were making saxes for other brands in Germany .Will turn out to be a good horn after a thorough overhaul .