The Bassic Sax Blog

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might have noticed that I have devoted a fair amount of space to a relatively uncommon vintage German saxophone manufacturer. Dörfler & Jörka was located in Nauheim, and had strong ties to the Julius Keilwerth company.

When I first happened across a De Villiers tenor in February 2009, I had no idea what I had stumbled upon. Nor did I know that this lowly De Villiers would end up becoming the catalyst in a drive for information that ultimately would see the Dörfler & Jörka company’s history being researched and recorded for the first time.

Over the last number of months I have worked with Uwe Ladwig. Uwe is a saxophonist, repair tech, historian, and writer for the German music journal Sonic: sax & brass. A few months ago he got a D&J-stencilled Impala into his shop. This was a stencil name that had been until now unknown to us.

Shortly after that sax was on his work bench, he asked if I could send him the photos of my De Villers. He had decided to write his next article for Sonic on this rather obscure German saxophone manufacturer.

After carefully researching Dörfler & Jörka’s (D&J) history, he wrote an article which was published in the September/October issue of Sonic. Uwe was kind enough to send me his research, and has given me permission to use it on my site.

Yesterday I spent the day updating the Dörfler & Jörka page on the main portion of my website.

What Uwe discovered fundamentally changes what we know about the saxophones that D&J produced, and his information is now included on my site.

Here are a few of the most salient points:

• D&J was very connected to, and interconnected with, the J. Keilwerth company.
• Like the Keilwerth company, D&J’s history is somewhat convoluted and complex.
• D&J produced their own saxophones, and never used Keilwerth body tubes.
• D&J horns are not Keilwerth stencil saxophones. For the most part, they are copies of J. Keilwerth horns.

If you are looking for information about the Dörfler & Jörka company, I suggest you take a look at the newly updated D&J page on my site. I think you might be surprised at what you read.

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

A few weeks ago German sax tech Uwe Ladwig informed me that he had stumbled across yet another stencil name for Dörfler & Jörka saxophones. Like the brand name Corvair, this sax too shared its name with an American car: Impala.

This morning I was checking out the German eBay site and I happened to come across one of these D&J-made Impala saxophones. This silver plated tenor is in desperate need of an overhaul, and has clearly not been played for quite some time.

     Source: eBay.de

The seller describes the sax like this:

(I’ll give you the original German because it’s short, and then the translated version)

TENOR SAXOPHON IMPALA

Marke: “IMPALA”

gemarkt: Nr. 16376 – Made in Western Gemany

L. 83cm

ohne Koffer

ungeprüft und mit Spuren der Zeit, müsste überholt und hergerichtet werden, ansonst ordentlicher original Zustand

The translated version goes like this:

Tenor Saxophone Impala

Brand Name: “Impala”

Marked: No. 16376 – Made in Western German.

83 cm Long

No Case

Has not been tested, and shows its age. It will need an overhaul, but otherwise decent original condition.

     Source: eBay.de

     Source: eBay.de

I don’t imagine that green growth like this would be on the keys if the sax was being played regularly.

     Source: eBay.de

     Source: eBay.de

The decorative pearl is missing on the low C key guard.

     Source: eBay.de

I wonder why the stamping Made In Western Germany is so worn looking. Even the numbers look a bit hinky.

Although admittedly the stamping on the back of my lacquered D&J De Villiers isn’t fabulous either, which had lead to someone who only had seen the pictures on-line to speculate that the horn might be a relac. It isn’t.

Since then I’ve noticed this to be a pattern on other D&J horns. Here is the stamping on an Artist #300 alto, on a Clinton alto, a René Dumont Tenor, and finally on a Voss Tenor.

The engraving on this Impala appears to be original—as it does on all the saxes from my D&J Gallery that I’ve linked to above—so perhaps the flaw lies in however D&J applied the stamping on the back of their body tubes.

     Source: eBay.de

     Source: eBay.de

This is quite possibly the original ligature and cap—and perhaps even mouthpiece—that came with the horn. A Roxy alto that sold on eBay in October ‘09 had the same cap and lig. It came with its original accessories.

     Source: eBay.de

The original D&J neck tightening screw has been replaced at some point in time. The round thumb screw is gone, and a conventional one is now in its place.

     Source: eBay.de

The private auction for this Dörfler & Jörka Impala Tenor runs until August 26. At the time of writing there were 33 bids on the horn, with the high bid being €181.00. XE.com tells me that that’s $229.40 US at this precise moment in time.

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.

Yesterday I saw something very interesting on eBay: a vintage Artist #300 alto saxophone. Now what makes this vintage horn interesting, is that it was made by Dörfler & Jörka (D&J) in Germany.

To date the Artist #300 name is not one that has been associated with D&J anywhere on the Internet. However, the seller did his homework and is very correct. This is indeed a Dörfler & Jörka alto. (BTW, notice the lip of the bell doesn’t appear to be straight.)

     Source: eBay.com

Here is how the seller describes this vintage German alto:

Vintage Dörfler & Jörka “Artist #300″ Alto Sax with case and Rene Dumont short shank mouthpiece. I have read the body is made by Keilwerth and the keywork is by Dörfler & Jörka. It was made in Western Germany and the Serial number is 111xx. Dörfler & Jörka produced saxes for several companies – the engraving on this matches the Rene Dumont and Senator nodels of Dörfler & Jörka saxes I see on the web. It’s in very nice condition doe its age with only a few minor dings and finish wear.

Features:

• Rolled Tone Holes and red leather pads
• Unique Dörfler & Jörka cinch screw that secures the neck into the body
•  The keyguards have MOP caps – the thumbrest also has a MOP button.
• It has the signature Dörfler & Jörka clothing guard

     Source: eBay.com 

     Source: eBay.com 

     Source: eBay.com

Here is a nice shot of the rolled tone holes on the bell keys.

     Source: eBay.com 

     Source: eBay.com 

Because D&J numbered their saxophones consecutively—regardless of the name stencilled on them—I noticed that this one was probably made during the same month as my De Villiers tenor. My tenor’s serial # is 1119X.

     Source: eBay.com 

     Source: eBay.com 

In this photo there are 2 things that are obvious: 1. The low Bb pad is missing, and 2. The low B and C# pads that we can see appear to be red in colour. Those are most likely the original pads, since D&J saxes came from the factory with red pads.

     Source: eBay.com 

Here is a good photo of the badge, and you can see how it looks like not only those of the René Dumont and Senator saxophones the seller mentions, but also like the H. Genet, Roxy, Symphonic, and Voss as well.

     Source: eBay.com 

We do know that D&J made Toneline Artist saxophones. It is possible that whatever company had the Toneline Artist horns stencilled, also had other Artist series saxophones stencilled as well. Or, perhaps this Artist #300 was ordered by another company altogether.

In any event, the auction for this Dörfler & Jörka-stencilled alto runs until May 2. The Buy It Now price is $477.77.

© 2010, The Bassic Sax Blog. All rights reserved.