This unidentified whistle on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111638556064?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT looks like one of Bernard’s Overtons and that is confirmed by the fact the seller says he bought it from Hobgoblin about 15-20yrs ago, and Bernard sold his whistles through Hobgoblin. The problem is that the whistle is not stamped Overton and I believe that only his earliest whistles were unstamped. Thoughts anyone?
Looks like this one that The Irish Flute Store has had for a long time, which is said to be a Chieftain (or maybe more correctly made by Phil Hardy anyway). Don’t think Chieftains every looked like that, except for the Kerry Pros, which were marked as such. He made Overtons for a while before that, and he too sells through Hobgoblin:
Mike, that looks like an Overton to me. But what do I know?
The W&D looks very much like a Chieftain - Old Style. Looks like the ones I played in the 90’s.
The heads are different on the no name eBay and the W&D Chieftain instruments.
The old Chieftains did not have the squashed and squared-up sides at the head as in the W&D example. Now Bernard may have started out making the head in a way similar to that Chieftain but he at some point did a repair on one of his whistles that had been dented at the head. He recognized that the narrowed and constricted head bore helped correct the flat second octave notes. So he incorporated that into his design. The eBay example, typical of the classic Overton design, is narrowed in the vise on the top and sides. The Kerry Pro uses that shape as Barry has pointed out.
But what do I know?
Feadoggie
Mike, that looks like an Overton to me. But what do I know? The W&D looks very much like a Chieftain - Old Style. Looks like the ones I played in the 90’s.
I totally agree, Dennis (with regards to the W&D whistle too). Everything points to it being an Overton apart from the fact it is not stamped as such!! That’s the troubling part. From what little I know, only the very earliest Overtons weren’t stamped and this one was supposedly bought new around 1995-2000!!
But from what Colin has written elsewhere on the forum fake Overtons have tended to have one flattened side to the head rather than three. One might reasonably assume too that having created a fake Overton, the maker would want to stamp it as such . . . wouldn’t they!
My memory is not as sharp as it once was but my recollection is that a very large number of Overtons were made without any stampings that would identify their provenance. So I would be less concerned than you may be over that bit.
But sure, enterprising whistlesmiths, unscrupulous or not, would have made sure to emulate all the visual details of the Overton design, particularly the head shape - sincerest form of flattery and all that.
I am not sure how prevalent bogus whistles marked as Overtons ever were. I don’t think they were at all prevalent over here in the States, at least not in the circles I traveled in. But that’s just my experience. Colin is the guy that would know as he and Bernard would have been directly effected by the fakes.
We pays our money and we takes our chances.
Feadoggie