For the Roman numeral II version - maybe around 1970 or a little later - they flipped the bell keys around to more resemble a French style instrument.
Someone (a Facebook acquaintance) wanted an inexpensive but reasonably good-looking and ready-to-go tenor, and frankly we picked Blake's (even though we have some upstairs that I had completely re-lacquered decades ago, yet we have never put together) because I could touch up the lacquer in a few places, the needle springs are already on the instrument (as reinstalling springs is a pain), and the case was more repairable than any of the others. (Tenor saxophone cases are expensive.)
There were a bunch of dents. They are all gone.
I re-lacqquered the neck (after removing dents), I re-lacquered the bell flare (after straightening the rim and removing creases). I had to pull on the main bell brace a little bit to realign the lowest two keys with the bell tone holes. I re-lacquered the radius of the bottom bow (after dent removal), and re-lacquered some really scratched up areas on the back.
Mrs. bloke put all new pads on this instrument. We found a used Vandoren T25 mouthpiece that we cleaned up and were going to put with it, but the person buying it says he already has an Otto Link hard rubber that he likes, as well as some unidentified metal jazz/rock mouthpiece...(We seem to be out of beginner/intermediate new tenor mouthpieces, and didn't want to order some and wait for them to come... and even those have gotten to be fairly expensive, not to mention the shipping) ...so we are holding on to the Vandoren for future use.
The case had no cracks, except all four of the dome-shaped metal feet were busted through the plastic. I didn't want to order feet from eBay or some other case hardware supplier and wait, so we went to Ace Hardware (out here in the boonies, that is only about twelve minutes away). They had some square plastic feet with fins on the underside that popped into a hole that is just barely over a inch square, so I cut one inch square holes around the round busted-in holes (where the feet were busted in) and popped four of those in place on the bottom, and they look very nice and are secure. ($5 total, even though Ace hardware prices and nearly 10% sales tax - since the state of Tennessee taxes almost nothing else.)
Here are a few glam shots. Digital pictures make things look better than they actually look, but this thing really does look pretty good.
This is the back, which looks the worst:
Here's the repaired and re-lacquered bell flare:
Here's the ol' bloke testing it out with a simple two octave C scale . It sounds loud, but actually I was playing it softly, to avoid blowing past leaks: (had there been any)
Yes, there is audio. You have to find the little thing and UNcheck "muted".
https://imgur.com/a/gWLAh5m (Use this, if the video below doesn't "pop".)
Look: Saxophone (and - in particular - tenor saxophone) is "the baritone horn of the woodwinds". It's one of those instruments they give to the kids with absolutely no talent - who can't seem to get a sound out of anything else.wow bloke, we didn't know you could play the saxophone!
Also, keep in mind that this one has a perfect new pad job, and I'm not having to blow past any leaks.
The buyer lives in Columbus Mississippi, and even shipping to there is expensive. The Olds-made Conn 11J tuba that (repair forum) I brought back from the dead belongs to a school near Tupelo, Mississippi...
The band director has agreed to meet me at an interstate exit directly south of us in Mississippi on I-22 (roughly an hour round trip for me). I'm going to hand the band director his tuba and this tenor, and the person who purchased the tenor is going to drive from Columbus, MS to the school near Tupelo to retrieve it. That's probably less than a two-hour round trip for him, and still casual gas money, even at today's prices. He's a really interesting guy... airplanes, guitar building, and other things. He played saxophone in grade school and owns an alto that is basically the same model as this ("Signet" - whereby the only upgrade on that model was hand-polished and lacquered mechanisms, vs. nickel plated).
@arpthark