I went to my local Postal delivery office this morning to pick up an antique flute that was recently up for auction on E-Bay.
The flute can be seen at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Viewitem&item=2552216211
Hope that link worked -otherwise just type in that item number on E-Bay,and it should come up.
Anyway,as you can hopefully see,it’s a one keyed Baroque style flute,in Boxwood (I LOVE the look of old Boxwood-I reckon my ‘HolyGrail’ flute would have to be a Boxwood/Ivory/silver keyed Rudall and Rose,or maybe a Potter,or similar-IF I had the cash!).The seller advertised it as 19th century.From the on-line research that I’ve done so far,the maker J.C. Haynes (1830-1907)was the brother of the more famous flutemaker, William Haynes.James set up his own business in Boston in 1862.
Can anyone tell me more about this maker and his business?
The flute is in three pieces,each of which is marked ‘J.C. HAYNES & CO. BOSTON- MASS.’ addendum;the upper body is also marked ‘33 COURT St’. I cannot see any serial number.
The flute is in fairly good condition-there are no cracks,though a chip is missing from the end stop.The end silver(?)ring is missing,though I could easily get this replaced,if I wanted to (there is a Silversmith/jeweller with a workshop about two minutes walk from my front door!)
The single key seems to work o.k.,but the leather pad has come away from the key and is currently blocking the hole(!).Obviously,I will need to remove the key and replace the pad to resore this flute to full playing condition.I have already found out how to do this from flutemaker Clive Catterral’s website,so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
On returning home,I have oiled the flute using pharmaceutical grade almond oil,inside and out.The bore is fairly rough in comparison to my Anon. (German?)Blackwood flute.The cork is also virtually at the edge of the Emb. hole-I decided to leave it for the moment,though I think that it may be a little stiff to move(I’ll get a suitably sized dowel for the job).
I’ve also greased the threaded tenons.
The flute has travelled from near Denver,Colerado to the North east of England.I wondered about whether I should slowly ‘re-hydrate’ the flute by putting it in an air-tight box with a damp sponge,as it will have come from a dry environment(am I right?),but as it turns out,it’s raining here today,so the humidity is quite high,but not excessive-So I’ve left the flute to ‘rest’ after it’s oiling,close to a partially open window-no danger of too much sunlight or heat today!
I thought that I’d give a flute at least four hours,or even overnight,to soak up some of the oil,before starting to gentily ‘break it in’
Am I doing right so far?- Any advise as to the care of this flute greatfully received.Also can anyone shed any further light on it’s possible age? I know that the ‘Traverso’ type flute was an anachronism in the 19th C.,so is this flute perhaps a ‘reproduction’,similar to the work of Folkers and Powell and many others in our own time?
Never having owned a wood flute other than bamboo (which really isn’t wood), I can’t answer most of your questions, but I think you got a good deal. I’ve noticed flute prices have dropped as the economy has faltered. I’ve also noticed several flutes on e-bay, yours included, that I would have bid on if I didn’t already have my Seery on the way…isn’t that just the way it always is!
Congrats on your new flute - it looks to be in great shape.
I stand corrected,Andrew-Thanks!
Where did I get James from?-anywho,I couldn’t find much info. on old J.C. in comparison to William Haynes.
Can you tell me anymore?
Well, it’s off to ‘Googleland’ again for me!
Did your mother not warn you that buying antique flutes on E bay is a very bad habit ? It may not make you go blind but it may make you go broke ( he says bitterly ) .
I keep promising myself that I shall never again buy flutes on E bay ( or anywhere else ).I think that the only solution is to put my computer on Ebay and get my life back !
Hello.
I don’t think the traversa ,or transverse flute was anything strange in the 19th C. They were normal .
According to Ardal Powell ,William Haynes was not related to John C. who worked c. 1861 -1900 according to Langwill ( but we don’t take L. too seriously , do we ? ) . Trouble with J.C.H & Co is that they were importers, (if it is a trouble), but it seems to muddy the waters somewhat when it comes to attributions.
If you do find anybody to make silver rings cheaply and well do let us know .There are a few flutemakers will be glad of the information !
Hi Andrew,
I’ve just ordered Powell’s book ‘The Flute’ for a bit of general historical background on flute history,and also Quantz’s treatise ‘On playing the Flute’,as translated by Edward R’ Reilly,to give me an insight into Traverso playing in the 18th century.
My main interest is Irish traditional Flute,but I’m also interested in the history of the Flute in general.
Whilst searching the net on info. about Traverso’s,I came across the Baroque Flute Resources page http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~scott/fluteresources/
which has provided many interesting links-I’ve spent some time eyeing the beautiful reproduction flutes by many gifted makers from around the world.Rod Cameron’s flute care page is also worth a look over.
Certainly,the Traverso isn’t an Irish session cannon,but Irish music CAN be played on it,as well as it’s own period repetoire.
I am not sure what all this " traverso " business is all about .If the pitch is OK (and if it is American I suppose it is more likely to be so ) it should be useable for " Irish " use ,though you have bought a very small holed model .What does the flute play at ?
It’s about playing Baroque music (Bach, Vivaldi, Telleman, Blavet…) on the original instrument. A challenging thing, but a lot of fun too, and beautiful sound.
Kevin, nice looking flute, very interesting for being a Haynes. I’m very curious to hear what you think of it. But give yourself a month or so before you give up on it. Traversos can be tricky.
The Haynes plays at a=440 (or close enough,I will give it a proper work out against the ‘Shakuhachi’ tuner,as featured in the very recent ‘Test your whistles’ thread,probably tomorrow-my day off).
I’ve no intention of giving up on it Glauber It’s a very nice instrument,though I will have to re-pad the key to get it to play properly-I have downloaded suggested fingerings by Hotteterre,Quantz and Rod Cameron,but I can’t manage some of the chromatics without a functioning key( the detached ‘pad’ is actually sealing the hole at the moment!).I’m actually quite keen to hear the variation in note quality/tone,especially the ‘shaded’ notes like ‘F’.
Speaking of Baroque composers,can you recommend any good EASY pieces to play, or recordings to listen to?
Naturally O’Carolan compositions come to mind from an ‘Irish’ perspective.
Anything by Blavet sounds nice and isn’t too challenging. Better yet, get Jan Boland’s method (called something like “Method for the 1 key flute”). PM me if you need help finding it, and i’ll give you more info and/or her contact information.
Thanks Glauber- you ‘retrieved’ that information for me in double quick time (or should I say ‘Whippet quick’? )
I’ve heard of Jan Boland’s method book- possibly from flutehistory.com
Looks like I’m on another learning curve!
As an update from yesterday,I called into a local music shop today with the original leather ‘pad’ if you can call it that-it’s just a wizzened up leather disc!(then again,it may be original-I guess I’d be wizzened up if I get to that age! )The shop owner was kind enough to give me a ‘modern’ flute pad of almost identical size.
I did plan to make my own pad from soft leather,and use shellac to fix it to the key,but being keen to give the flute a 'proper try out(and lazy to boot) I’ve used the ‘modern’ pad,fixing it to the key with a modern adhesive which can be cleaned off with meths.
I’ll eventually give a proper report on how the old girl plays!
I’ve ordered Jan Boland’s method book on-line,so should have that over the next few days.
Also,I picked up a C.D. album(NAXOS 8.555064) of flute sonatas composed by J.J. Quantz,performed by Mary Oleskiewicz on a reproduction of one of Quantz’s own self built instruments,made of Blackwood (‘Ebony’)and Ivory.The flute features two keys- Eb and D#,Quantz’s own innovation,which permited enharmonic distinctions throughout the scale,plus a tuning slide.The flute is built to play at A=385 Hz (!)
The music is very enjoyable-I particularly like the ‘Tempo di Minuetto’ section of the sonata in G minor QV1:116 for flute and Basso Continuo,where you can clearly hear the player ‘rolling’ in and out of notes.
I found this recording of particular interest,as I have a copy of Quantz’s famous essay on the flute on order.
Certainly makes a change from the Jigs and the Reels!
Cool, you’re in for a fun ride. Quantz was a cantakerous nut, but his book is fun to read. He thought he was revolutionizing the flute by adding his second key, and everybody else ignored him. But his chapters on ornamentation are useful.
A=385 is pretty common. These lower pitched flutes sound so nice! It’s almost as if the lower the pitch the fuller the sound… The A=415 pitch used in most Baroque instruments today is a convention, chosen because it’s exeactly 1 semitone lower than our A=440 tuning, so it’s easy to do things like sliding a harpsichord’s mechanism to the right if you want it in modern tuning. But anyway, until A=440 was established, the pitch was all over the place, usually lower, sometimes higher too. Most players hated this, of course. Quantz raves against it in his book. Some Baroque flutes were built with 7 different middle parts, to accomodate 7 different pitches. It’s common to have at least 2 middle parts (called corps de rechange to play in A=440 or A=415).
Now i can’t wait for my Rod Cameron traverso to arrive. I’m hoping to have it in november. Have to sell my Sweetheart (flute) to help pay for it, so you’ll see it on eBay sometime soon…
So which model are you getting from Rod?
I forgot to mention that the Quantz repro. flute played on that album that I bought was made by Jean Francois Beaudin.
)
It’s a very nice instrument,though I will have to re-pad the key to get it to play properly-I have downloaded suggested fingerings by Hotteterre,Quantz and Rod Cameron,but I can’t manage some of the chromatics without a functioning key( the detached ‘pad’ is actually sealing the hole at the moment!).I’m actually quite keen to hear the variation in note quality/tone,especially the ‘shaded’ notes like ‘F’.