There is an 8-key Wylde up for sale on ebay just now. A couple of days left. The barrel of the flute and a middle section look like the work of Sam Murray. Item nr: 250599613000
http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-8-KEY-FLUTE-BY-WYLDE-FROM-RUDALL-ROSE_W0QQitemZ250599613000QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Woodwind_Instruments?hash=item3a58e6a248
Sam’s not that old 
. Nor is he likely to have used a Wylde stamp 
. It’s not an uncommon design to beef up the wood thickness around the socket. Might have helped on mine, where every socket has been cracked and repaired.
Lovely looking flute. I don’t like the bulgy bits, personally, but that’s just me. I love the look of the case. Shame the grease pot’s missing - presumably the cleaning rod as well. I like the little touch with the (apparently) cocuswood handle for the key box.
I’m sure Jem would say that the barrel crack isn’t a problem, and I bet it’s a great flute. What pitch, do you reckon?
lovely flute and lovely case, certanly an expensive costumed model.
look at the Bb key… nice.
unfortunatly small holes…
Interesting Wylde!
Looks like he copied a Clementi design, even the case is a Clementi design.
It doesn’t look like the flute has a address? That is strange…
I was emailing with Robert Bigio in England about Wylde, he mentione that many of the flutes made at that time, were made by Wylde, Blackman, Fentum etc. Me may have made some for clementi? I know he made flutes for Monzani, that have this look. The keys have the look of a Rudall, but the body of a Clementi, must have been a custom job…
Given it’s length, it is surely a D flute.
That is a very custom key there, probably easier to ues then the usual shape.
“It’s not an uncommon design to beef up the wood thickness around the socket. Might have helped on mine” Kkrell.
Didn’t know it was an old “design”, thinking of the barrel part, always though it was Sam’s trademark Yes a nice flute though
I doubt the barrel crack would be much of a problem to fix.
There, I couldn’t risk disappointing anyone, could I now?
???
Obviously! 
I take it that is a response to Ben’s query about pitch - he meant design pitch, e.g 432Hz, 440Hz, etc., not “what key?” as in Bb, Eb or whatever.
So do you have a response to his question?
‘What pitch, do you reckon?’
I’m afraid we don’t have adequate info to answer that, Jim. The overall length given is ball-park to include playability at 440 within the range of the tuning slide and for sure does not suggest serious HP-ness, but even if we had sounding length and C#-Eb length measurements, one still could not be certain of the optimum design tuning. With these antiques one has to get hold of them and play them. The dimensions will tell you if a higher or lower pitch centre is probable and whether it is definitely HP or an antique LP (well below 440), but not how the flute was voiced - where within its range of tunability its scale is most internally consistent.
Thanks. Can this sort of thing generally be shifted by a maker, if it’s non-optimal?
would the the stamp indicate that it might pre-date his time at Ruddall. I imagined that he would generally have used their endorsement in stamping once they let him (which is what we have seen in other examples of course). The point about copying Nicholson is an interesting idea and might fit with this chronology too. I fear I wouldn’t afford it in competitive collector auction, so happy bidding! 
I take it you mean “can the tuning be ‘corrected’ by a modern maker”?
It may be possible, but very much depends on what precisely they find - remember things like bore profile and chambering have effects as well as length and tone-hole size and distribution, and that all these things are interlinked and it can be very hard indeed to square all the variables to achieve an optimum configuration even for a fixed pitch expectation such as modern concert pitch, let alone to remain tolerably flexible across quite a wide range of possible pitches as these original flutes had to. Terry has written much about all this. Bottom line is it is foolish to expect any antique flute to meet modern criteria and I think it is also generally undesirable, even unethical to set about “correcting” high quality antiques. I have no problem with doing it to a Nach Meyer or even a run of the mill anonymous English flute, though I think one should minimise such alterations even then (beyond restorable or non-invasive tweak techniques such as putting beeswax in a sharp tone-hole), but would be quite strongly opposed to thus interfering with a good named flute. Other threads have dealt with learning how to play these antiques appropriately and with relevant and appropriate expectations of them. In any case, I doubt whether a Wylde would “need” such doctoring. Either it will play OK at 440 allowing for the standard tuning issues of this kind of flute, or it won’t, in which case vandalising it would be pretty unlikely to achieve any kind of “satisfactory” result from any viewpoint.
!!! sp!!!
I think the “earlier” surmise is a good one.
Wyldes don’t tend to command the same premium prices as R&Rs - I predict this will go for under £1750, maybe significantly under, even given it has most of its original kit (nice!), based on past Wylde sales. R&R quality flute at half the normal R&R price… though I’m not sure I’d personally go for this particular one as a “player” given its possible slightly lower pitch orientation and earlier style generally. (If I was interested in bidding, I’d be chasing up the extra measurements…)
I suppose that’s what I was hinting at in my uneducated surmise - i.e. that I might be tempted by a later Wylde assuming that he’d got his eye in on a winning formula by then. But I’ve no evidence at all on which to base such fancy.
PS. did you see the one that was up at Gardiner Houlgate on Friday (actually two of them, one with photo)? No hammer prices on their website yet. there was a Potter, R&R, Nicholson by Prowse, and various oddments too.
Sorry, I’m not understanding some of this.
Any educated idea of when about this flute was made?
Where was Wylde in relation to Rudall and Co at the time?
it’s only a guess but I was guessing early. Given he was stamping his name ‘from R&R’ by the mid 1830s and with it being a bit odd and Nicholson-ish in profile, I just wondered whether it was prior to that. We know he was established in London by 1832.
The genealogists have him born 1807 at Westerham Kent (so he’d have been aged 25 in 1832). He was in Lambeth and Charing Cross manufacturing flutes, employing 1 man. He married Ann ? from Cambs and they had at least 12 children (!), including Charles who was also involved with flutes. There is index for a probate record following his death in 1885 if anyone is interested to look up what he left behind. More info than you need I’m sure 
Anyway, by pure coincidence I think I know who’s selling it (nearby antique dealer) and there’s a small possibility of having a brief look at it tomorrow if she’s passing this way. If she does then I’ll try to post some comment here before the auction closes… but I’m not an expert so make your own judgements
Many thanks. It’s an interesting flute.
the fact that this lovely Wylde is not a “from R&R” does it means it’s less worthy on market’s prices?
(sorry for such silly question)