No photo or description of mark: check. Pin mounts with German-style angled G#, skinny foot keys, and flat rings: check. Broken long F with missing touch: check. A bargain at $2000! Better jump on it before it gets away…
“For its age, this circa-1850 Rudall and Rose African Blackwood flute is in nice condition. With a little fixing up you could have an amazing, deep, rich sounding flute. All of the keys are solid silver and the mouthpiece (which is also made out of solid silver) wraps around the whole head joint. …According to the Antique Roadshow “These [Rudall and Rose] flutes are considered by the Irish flute players of today to be the quintessential Irish flute. If you hear any of the most famous Irish players, they are playing on Rudall Rose flutes. And they like them because the size of the tone holes, they’re rather large, and it’s a large mouth hole, or embouchure hole, and they put out a huge sound.” With some work the value of this flute would be doubled”!
Although that one at least offered the caveats that it is “anonymous” “probably made in the U.S.”. This is more disturbing with the claim that it is an original R&R.
I did contact the vendor to say that it didn’t look like any Rudall I’ve seen and to ask for a description or photo of the mark. I guess discretion took the better part of valor. Maybe he or she really thought they’d struck gold…
I also sent a note. Wondering if I’ll get a reply. I suspect that the seller just got some bad info rather than an attempt to defraud. But then it’s near Thanksgiving (a quaint Merkin holiday, Jem) and I’m feeling warm and fuzzy…
Mind, they probably need/deserve a holiday. As for those pesky puritan colonists, well, haven’t they a deficit to reduce, some guns to shoot off and tea parties to hold?
