Here is something interesting that I happened to stumble across: an article from the June 1924 edition of Popular Mechanics. The article is about bamboo saxophones being played by the members of the Manila orchestra.
Source: blog.modernmechanix.com
Now remember, this was 1924, so even then players who didn’t have access to much money, were looking for inexpensive alternatives. This kind of reminds me of the Asian horns of today actually… Mmm… 
A few months ago I wrote an article about 2 types of wooden saxophones currently in production. Both the Saxwood and Thaitradder versions of our instruments are however saxophone-shaped, whereas the bamboo instruments shown above are not. One of them is actually being held like a flute.
Despite the claim that the tone will “rival the notes produced by the modern metal saxophone”, I am rather sceptical of that claim. Where is the conical bore? In my mind these instruments would produce sounds similar to those of bassoons, or perhaps sarrusophones, but saxophones? I’m just not seeing it.
In any event, these more moderately-price alternatives, provide us an interesting glimpse into options South Asian players of moderate means might have had early in the twentieth century. While we here in North America were busy with our intermediate and stencil saxes, players in other parts of the world, were using whatever materials were available to them, in order to create saxophone-like instruments.
