I was gigging in a bar in the 1960s, and this lady came in with a silver king alto that was so tarnished it looked ugly. She said her husband played it but he died years ago and asked $50.00 for it. It had so many leaks, it wasn't playable. I bought it, figuring having an alto would be fun. I had it overhauled and it turned out to be a 1925 King with the voice of an angel. I still have it and as many altos as I've compared it to (including MKVI) nothing sounds this sweet. The intonation is a bit rough, but definitely playable. I don't know if it's the silver or the brass alloy, but the tone is like silk, and it's impossible to honk on it (I'll use my tenor for that).
I know what you are referring to,
@Notes_Norton . Twelve years ago, I bought a tattered Beaugnier Vito Bari Sax for $315 US. It's case was very musty, like it had been stored in a dank, damp cellar. It had many repairs through its history. Out of the case intonation was extremely bad. The saving grace was, it had decent pads. The roughly 70 year old case was in very bad condition, it would require a complete frame restoration due to missing and broken off pieces, plywood plies missing layers, etc. It was the first to be tossed in the bin.
It was a former high school instrument, even had the high school name on it. Researching, the seller I bought it from was reputable, made no exaggerations and shipping was reasonable. It looked like it might have been dropped down the football bleachers a couple times after noting its condition and repairs.
Little by little, I started working on it. Every time I worked on it, I corrected little things here and there, found it played better after each correction. Fortunately, it was formed of red brass, which was easier to work with by hand. First, I removed the large dents. The key racks were badly misaligned. I Straightened the posts by removing the dents underneath, pulled them back into alignment. The pad heights were way off, I installed missing bumpers, corks, corrected pad heights. It has may be about 50% of its original lacquer. I removed the tarnish by carefully using Brasso.
After a year's worth of tweaks, I now had an instrument that plays really well in tune. This horn is easy to hit falsetto. I don't miss the high F# key, because I can finger it. (IMO, one doesn't need the high F# key, it's placed in an awkward location to hit when falsetto is much easier to finger.) As the various write ups mention, it does have the mellower darker sound of the French saxes of the era. Opinions vary, but personally I love it for its richness, sounds great with the earlier swing era of jazz and also legit music. With a wide vibrato it IMO almost sounds Cello like.
In his 2019 book,
(Amazon) The Leak Light Speaks, Saxophone Purchase, Assessment, Set Up, Repair, Overhaul, Customization and Reflections by Tom Levitt has this to say,
"Saxophone Purchase. 1930 to 1960 was the golden era for saxophone manufacturing in terms of all-round quality. For the most part, pre-1960 saxophones are of intermediate or professional quality."
Based on the way this horn plays, especially after I cleaned it up, it definitely plays like a pro sax. I gather that the only difference between the cheaper student model LeBlanc Vito (for export to US) and their pro model was better jewels and engraving for the pro model, and finer adjustments before leaving the factory.
With some diligent research, could not nail down the year based on its serial number, listings contained gaps. However, based on Beaugnier tenors with the same the unique left pinky key pads, I figure it was manufactured in France around 1952 - 1953. I also learned that these saxes were hand made traditionally like they did years ago. The LeBlanc Beaugnier factory in a suburb of Paris across the street from Selmer, closed its door in 1970 because they could not compete on price with machine made instruments.
Now after constant use, it needs some pads replaced, where my Antigua Winds Low A Bari now comes in handy.
First photo collage is the Bari as received, 2nd is after I cleaned it up. After that photo, I installed the missing jewels in the pad guards (inexpensive proper sized ones for costume jewelry) and removed the dent in its bow.