Advice on Anonymous Flute

Irish Flute
1

So a couple days ago I bought a flute on eBay on a lark, and it’s come in the mail today. It was inexpensive, and the seller offers a 14 day return policy, so I figured I might as well try it. Somewhat surprisingly, it seems to be made to play in A440, which I wasn’t expecting based on many comments here. I can’t play anything lower than an F#, so I’m guessing the pads aren’t great on the lower half, but the left hand notes sound pretty clear. I checked them out on the RTTA tuner and they’re pretty much spot-on, the F# is flat, but I’m not sure whether that’s a problem with the actual tuning or just that the lower section is leaky.

The headjoint is ivory, cracked down the back (away from the embouchure) but it doesn’t seem too bad. The body seems to be ebonite or something similar. The keys are a bit sticky, especially the top C, but they play fine. Here are some pictures and a short recording of what notes I could play on it:

https://app.box.com/s/3fiv9vqn4joswpr5n3l7

So, my questions to you:

A) What do you think the provenance of this flute is? The listing said “nach Meyer,” which would make sense, but there aren’t any marks for brand or off-brand names. Anonymous German, maybe early 20th cen. perhaps?

B) How/where/should it be serviced? I’m in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC, so any local knowledge of repairers would be welcome, but I’ll send it away if there’s someone better. But I don’t want to spend tons of money getting it fixed up, since these things seem to be a dime a dozen on eBay. Is there some stuff I could do myself, and leave the important/tricky stuff to the professional? What kind of repair bill might I expect?

C) Should I keep or or return it? I know that’s very subjective, but I’ve got some time to think, and I’d welcome your thoughts as to whether it’s worth the money and time. I’ve got a WD Sweet Shannon that I love, and I thought of this as a possibly inexpensive way to get something with keys. I like its sound, but if you think it’ll be a headache to fix/maintain, especially the ivory (which I also can’t take out of the country), I’ll return it and try something later, maybe when I have more cash. I’m leaning towards keeping it and fixing it, but that’s without knowing too much about fixing up flutes. When I get an estimate for cost of repair I might think very differently.

Thanks!

2

Looks French from the keys, end of 19th century. French are usually quite decent flutes, with a sweet sound even if not very powerful. F# usually very flat though.
Will need at least new pads (all) and corks. You could learn to do it yourself…

3

While I agree the keys appear French in style, they do not appear to be very high quality mailechorte. Perhaps this was an instrument made strictly as an inexpensive ‘export’ model. I cannot tell what type of wood is used from the photos. I have a flute from this era that is clearly made from cocus, what the French called Palisander. A bright light may, or may not, reveal reddish highlights in the wood. When you have the keys off, please tell us if you find any stamps or markings, particularly on the foot keys.

Bob

4

The keywork looks french-style to me, but the rest of the flute looks “german” (i.e. maybe german or czech or thereabouts) - metal end-caps, small holes, combined foot joint, ivory head joint. Overall I don’t think it’s an actual french flute.

5

I figured it’s a German flute, because it is definitely mass-produced, although being a copy of a French flute sounds right, after looking at some images online it does seem to imitate some of the French flutes. It playing in 440 suggests to me a later date, that’s why I thought early 20th cen.

Does anyone have experience with ivory headjoints? I know they prone to cracking, and I don’t want to restore the flute only to have the headjoint crack through the embouchure as it seems to do regularly on flutes like this, especially since the embouchure is where all the moisture will be coming from. What’s upkeep like for ivory?

6

In your original posting you stated that the headjoint was already cracked on the back away from the embouchure. This should relieve the stress and probably prevent further cracking on the embouchure side. You should maintain the flute in a stable moisture environment. If you observe closely you may see small shifting in the size of the existing crack. If over time the crack appears stable there are a couple of strategies to repair it.
Geopolitics made blackwood and elephant ivory fairly cheap commodities for the German instrument makers up until the Armistice following
WWI. I have repaired Ivory headjoints, however I wouldn’t rush into anything until you know the ivory is relatively stable. Probably the most satisfactory course is to remake an outer sleeve from artificial ivory as Jon Cornea has done several times. . .but I doubt this flute warrants that kind of expense. Play it and enjoy it for what it is.

Bob