It's listed in an auction as "Unmarked Antique Saxophone". It does appear to be an older design and I find the square bar stock key guards unusual. With all the elaborate engraving I thought it may have been an expensive horn in it's day. Any ideas what kind it is?
Some kind of a Conn based on the solder joint between the bow and bell, possibly a shooting star or it could be a Pan American (Conn Stencil). Hard to say, really.
It isn't a Conn, the pinky table and palmkeys don't resemble an American maker. I would also say it is a European horn...maybe Italian or French stencil. Malerne stencils sometimes used the square keyguard wires like this one. Matter of fact, I just pulled up an old pic of a Malerne stencil I once fixed up...looks to be a dead ringer.
Will sound quite sweet, very big with a lotta cojones...and the stack and palm/side keys are pretty responsive - the pinky table is a bit clunky, however.
In project shape, worth maybe $100.
After a lot of searching I think I agree with JayeLID. It’s a dead ringer for an Acme Artist which is a Malerne horn excepting the Acme doesn’t have the elaborate engraving. I already have a couple of $100 horns I don’t use.
Whatever it is, it is the duplicate of my first alto which was given to me by an organ player in 1970. I began to use it as the alto 'mule' for playing dual saxes. I didn't get a 'real' alto until 1983 when I bought a Selmer USA 'Omega'. A PO'd sound man stole the old alto along with my Brilhart Level Air mouthpiece a year or so before that. I guess they were claiming that it never got put on the truck or something. Anyway, I never knew what the thing was and didn't really care. All I cared about was that the upper half of it played.
It looks very similar to a York tenor saxophone I had long time ago. It was an American made saxophone (Grand Rapids). I still have a few pictures, not the best resolution but they could be useful:
It looks very similar to a York tenor saxophone I had long time ago. It was an American made saxophone (Grand Rapids). I still have a few pictures, not the best resolution but they could be useful: View attachment 245106View attachment 245108View attachment 245110
That York is probably a Malerne stencil as well (the pictures are not sufficient for me to say for sure). If I remember rightly, in the late 1930s York was bought by Carl Fischer, who was the sole U.S. importer of Buffet instruments. Buffet and Malerne had a business relationship with Malerne making Buffet's less expensive Evette line of saxes, at least for a while. After Fischer bought York, York ceased production of saxes, and sold (mostly) Malerne saxes stenciled as Yorks, although I have seen one York in an old thread in the York subforum that was a Buffet (Dynaction I think) stencil.
I have one of the altos and I was surprised at how well it plays. It reminded me a bit in sound and feel of a Dynaction. A "poor man's" Buffet, if you will.
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