About this flute

Irish Flute
1

I got a flute for not a lot of money on eBay because it looks like it’s been stored in a moldy basement for the last several decades. It’s also cracked, needs new pads, and is generally in bad shape.

It looks like it came from HE McMillin in Cleveland, who basically resold instruments made in Europe (which I understand was relatively common at the time. Since the name doesn’t include “& son” I think it’s from before 1914, and it has the brand name “Criterion”. The little I’ve found about his instruments say that they used the “American Criterion” brand, so I’m not sure when the “American" was added, or if it was just omitted from this particular piece.

It’s not bohem system, so if anyone knows what this style is called so I can look up the fingering if I ever get it in playing shape, I’d appreciate it very much.

(Edit: looking again, looks like Meyer style)

Anyway, I’m posting it here in case it’s interesting, and in case anyone knows anything more about this style of flute or more about the importer/manufacturer. I’m new so I can only attach one photo. I’ll try to add more later.

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2

The Mark/logo. Fun thing here is that they stamped it under where the key lever is which is kind of sloppy, but that does mean that the gold leaf they originally stamped it with is still there on part of it.

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3

The rest of the stamp:

I do like the addition of the little thing under the maker stamp saying “Austria, Chicago, St. Louis” because the tiny bit of stuff I was able to find out about McMillin didn’t indicate that he had any connection to those cities at all in any way. It is possible (from what I understand) that it was made in Austria, but past that it just looks like puffery.

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4

One last post for now: the crack in the headstock from the wood shrinking around the brass tube inside, which is one of the three actual “repairs” that are needed:

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(The others being a missing key post that I have no idea how to source, and one of the key levers having a crack in it which I will be sending to a qualified instrument repair person/silversmith to fix)