What do you know about "V. Kohlert's Sohne Graslitz i.B." ???

brianfedor

Hi, everyone! I'm struggling to figure out what type/year this Kohlert alto is that I just finished refurbishing. I bought it about 15 years ago and started the rehab project around that same time, which I just picked up again this year and finished earlier this month! It's a neat horn and I haven't seen any like it, but maybe someone on this thread has, so I'd really like so get some expert insight about it.


It's marked "V. Kohlert's Sohne Graslitz i.B." on the medallion on the bell. There's NO SERIAL # that I can find anywhere. It's a split key bell with extra keys near the lower stack for trilling low C#, B and Bb. I don't believe it's a horn that was ever lacquered - originally bare brass. It did no include the octave rocker key (above the upper stack, but the octave change works fine nonetheless.


I've included a gallery of photos that you can take a look at to see it for yourself. It was a very challenging horn to work on for sure - it plays now, but not as great as I'd like. I could probably be able to get it "there" with a couple hours of effort, but I'm more interested in passing it along to a new home that appreciates these instruments since I'm no longer really playing and I'm considering moving my family out of state.


Please let me know what you know about this instrument and if there's others you've seen out there on the "inter-webs". Thanks


PHOTO GALLERY:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2-XXmN7scbzS0RCU3RqeWU0R0E&usp=sharing


PHOTO OF MEDALLION ON BELL:
XjYKicQsZnE2v5UegGhMnpkp5mpNsjCkVh86_9gIjgOXhfLUIuiNNEqaHdUUQn1VwpvBwA=w1315-h533.jpg
 
This is from when Kohlert was still in Austria, so it's made around WW1 to 20 years earlier. I can't really check this for that long though.
EDIT: They started manufacturing Saxophones at 1900ish, so that estimate was right, and that part of Austria became Czechoslovakia after WW1.
Also, the Holton Beaufort was a stencil of these, and King/H. N. White also imported these from 1910-1916 until they started making their own saxophones.
Pete (saxpics) calls these the VKS model, and separates this into the early model, which he says is very similar to a Couesnon design. (with some Buffet Apogee system keywork)
He says they gained rollers and low Bb probably around 1910, so this narrows it down to 1910-1918, most likely from 1910-1914, as from 1914-1918, Austria was busy fighting in WW1.
 
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Well, I'm the Artist Formerly Known as Saxpics. I sold saxpics.com, what, 6 years ago. Something like that.

Just wanted to mention that I see one of the many places I screwed up on saxpics.com: I call the entire series of horns that were stamped "V. Kohlert & Sons" (or some variation of that) for all the VKS horns produced from 1900 to WWII "VKS Models." That's not bad, until you see that I call the horns from appx. 1935 to 1938 that have the VKS keyguards "VKS Models."

*Sigh*

You might want to check out Helen's website to see if she's got any further info, primarily because she can actually read German and I can't. However, I'm pretty happy with saying the horn's from well before 1924 and the pre-1914 date makes sense to me.

It's a really nice looking horn and I'll glom the pics when I have a chance.
 
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Hey, Pete! Yes, I remember saxpics - loved that site. I really appreciate the info. I'll be checking out Helen's site for sure. If you think of anyone else who's into these European/Oddity horns, please let me know. Thanks!
 
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