Took a wonder down to the famous Glasgow Barra’s market just there… and in the most flea-ridden, darkest section of junk, I came across a R.S PRATTEN’S PERFECTED flute.
Tape everywhere covering holes where keys once where & tape round the barrel most prob hidding cracks, Slide has stuck solid & there is a crack running the length of the headjoint. The poor thing is covered in dust, dirt and cobwebs and all the pads have rotted away.
Price paid…£5!
Pictures to follow as soon as l get my digital camera back tonight. Had a blow there just now…IT PLAYS!! lol Think it could make a nice repair job for someone.
Where these instruments individually serial numbered? Is the serial number found below LONDON on the address stamp?
After a search on Terry McGee’s site about the serial number place, this flutes serial number is 123. Also found it stamped on the bottom of the footjoint.
This is pretty amazing! But not entirely unheard of. A friend of mine just found a pristine first edition of Steinbeck and Rickett’s work “Sea of Cortez” at a bookstore on the Oregon Coast for around $100. He was headed out to sea off the Oregon Coast on a scientific expedition working on the seafloor - and he made all of his shipmates jealous! These frequently go for $800 plus (I know of one copy Ricketts inscribed to his last wife Alice who was half his age going for $20K in Berkeley that I would love to have - I am a bit of an “EdHead” myself). I think as the economy deteriorates that these things may become more frequent - such as finding Mercury Dimes and other coin silver currency in one’s change at the store.
Keep your eyes open. There are many Rudalls, Prattens, Prowses, Firths, etc. lurking out there waiting to be discovered!
You don’t want to go cleaning and shining that up.
As is it’s a Prattens Perfected Traditional model.
It’s ok to blow off the cobwebs though…and get the slide moving.
Sometime ago somebody on this list - Jon C. if I remember right, posted a link to an ebay listing for an old boxwood flute which I think had been in seawater for a long time. Looked marvelous as it was. Made me feel like making some boxwood flutes, putting them in an old sack with a rock and dropping them overboard well away from divers and crab fishermen. Keep a map with an X marked.
Would that be Robert’s Bookshop in Lincoln City? I think that was the place - south end of town, angle parking. Another LC seller recommended them to me, amazing place - picked up all sorts of finds while on a jaunt last March.
My killer deal for the year was a copy of the Northern Fiddler for $30 USD, including shipping from the UK. Poor chap wasn’t hip to Blue Books, apparently. The current “bargain” price on Amazon is $188.36. Another amazing find a few years back was an original pressing of Burke/McGann/Dolan’s Tribute to Michael Coleman LP on the Shaskeen label for $10 - Burke says in the liner notes of the reissue only 500 copies were pressed, that’s gotta be worth bucks.
Congrats on your find, Chris. The tape suggests someone really liked playing that flute. Of course in all likelihood they also blew all kinds of stout soaked spittle into the thing…
class!
this is a great find.. looks like the flute has an extra c key hole.. probably a pillar mounted key of some sort… looks like a later addition as all other keys are block mounted.
That embouchure looks good And crisp. And original. This is more important than the missing keywork! This flute should restore up nicely!
There were a few variations on the C/Bb keys - the ones that are post mounted may have been original. I’ve seen a few that were done with both post and block mounted keys.
Again a great score!
As to that bookstore, it was in Newport somewhere.
As Casey mentions, Hudson had a few unusual approaches to a thumb key for C. Sometimes he put on an extra key with its own hole, like in your case:
On others I’ve seen, he had the thumb key lift the tip of the normal long C key. If you look at the flute on my Hudson page, you’ll see a little extension to the long C key where the thumb C key connects.
It’s interesting that Hudson employed the opposite approach to Boehm. Boehm had added the normally open C key that required closing. Hudson employed a normally closed C key. This had the advantage of keeping the flute normal, but the disadvantage of having no where to rest your left thumb. Presumably this was regarded as a lesser evil, and is probably explained by the use of the 19th century grip (sometimes inappropriately called the Rockstro grip) which leaves the left thumb very free to wander between C and Bb keys.
It wasn’t uncommon to have a mix of block and post mounting, particularly where unusual keys were involved.
Absolutely terrific find!
Another Hudson-Pratten flute. Love it when they show up.
That makes 7 or 8 now worldwide (sorry, but I still have #27 and #49)
That C-touch is beautiful. I think it’s Hudson’s run at the 9-key flute, which they did, but I have not yet seen one fully keyed. Usually there’s something missing, like this one.
that other one that McGee keeps pushing is not an early Hudson flute. We’ve already gone through this, Terry. That one is very late, and a converted Siccama that was cross-stamped.
nevertheless…this is the second Hudson-Pratten flute found in the UK that sold for a song. Lovely job!
I was planning on heading back down to the market again this weekend!! But im giging down in the big smoke…im still expecting the barra’s to be mobbed with the Scottish forum users!
One thing the guy did say is that they sell tons of old flutes and the like at his stall… The hunt is on!
Picked up the body and footjoint of a METZLER boehm flute. Stamped METZLER & CO LIMITED, LONDON. Both parts are in good condition with no keys missing & no cracks. One of the block mounts is broke.
Pity the Headjoint isnt there…though l understand they where usually always cracking on these style of flutes.
I actually looked at that one last week but decided against it as I’d never be able to afford to have a headjoint made up for it; I also think we need to be a bit cautious, if too many of us start sniffing around for flutes the prices will rocket.
But im giging down in the big smoke…im still expecting the barra’s to be mobbed with the Scottish forum users!
