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.
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.
Update: Well it took a couple of tries, but boplover was able to sell this D&J-stencilled Condor tenor. In the end there was only 1 bid on the horn, and the winner paid only €275.00 for this vintage tenor.