Recently a I got a new entry in “my family” (aka my flute collection)
As for many other flutes the idea was buy it and sell it…
As for many other flutes it seems that this nice Late Clementi will stay longer than expected!
Here is the photo from the seller
and after a soft cleaning
the flute plays very well! One of the best boxwood I’ve ever tested.
Sounding lenght is 58,0 cm, and plays 440 with the slide just slightly open.
The low D is down by ~7 cent, not bad!
the overall tuning seems very good
except fot low B and A that are both sharp and this can be due to
the upper tenon “strangulation” (sigh).
Large holes and very large volume. Head and barrel in perfect conditions.
Silver keys are lovely! both for the silver quality and for the keywork.
I manage to “save” 3 of the original leather pads. (ball pads).
Those things are amazing! works really well!
the bad news are two cracks in two different socket.
one in the footjoint and another in RH1
Cannot resist to give it a go…
I’ve never posted audio files before. I’m not a good flute player,
I’m mostly a collector, but this flute sounds interesting anyway…
So pardonne my poor tempo and mistakes.
all the tennon are a bit loosing
trying not to expand the cracks (or create new ones)
the cracks have been covered with some bluetack…
That thing has a really nice tone! And the tuning seems good on every note, if anything it will just be a matter of getting used to the flute. Nice low D too. Lovely looking wood.
You lucky b*stard
The flute seems to play better and better day after day!
It is more responsive and I develop a more creamy sound from it
btw, question for you eeexpert guys, check the photos and tell me:
what “patent” means? it is a standard 8keys flute(!), isn’t it?
Very nice Radcliff! It wasn’t uncommon to mark flutes Patent in those days, even if you didn’t hold a patent for it!
But the flute is very interesting in this light. The very large holes suggest it’s post Nicholson. But Clementi marketed Nicholson flutes up to 1831 when Clementi retired, whereupon it was called Collard & Collard after the remaining partners. From then on Prowse made and marketed Nicholson flutes. So it looks like it should be marked C.Nicholson’s Improved, but it’s clearly not. Did Clementi make a range of large-holed flutes that were not Nicholson’s model? If so, I don’t remember that being reported anywhere. And if so, how did they vary from the famous product?
It doesn’t look very Nicholson apart from the holes. The boxwood and narrow ivory rings suggest military. Nicholson wasn’t all that keen on the Long F key, but when he had it, the touch bent upwards, not down. The head does appear to thin around the embouchure hole like Nicholson’s - if you have a calipers can you take a measurement? Or use the mark on the overlapping strip of paper method and divide by PI.
Can you tell us the C#-D# length? There might be a clue there.
Now do be careful with those cracks, and get some kind of supporting ring on the RH socket, even if it’s some tightly bound thread. Gulp. Did I say that?
I had a Clementi & Co that had an Ivory head and double rings, that looked at a glance to be an American flute. I suspect that it was for Import to America. It also had large tone holes. Perhaps Clementi & Co lasted longer then Langwill’s 1831 date? Notice also that the flute bares the dreaded pewter plugs that Nicholson also hated…
Now do be careful with those cracks, and get some kind of supporting ring on the RH socket, even if it’s some tightly bound thread.
What i have been doing with the ivory ringed flutes that need more support, I put a few turns of carbon fiber under the ivory ring for support. Works great with crack repairs, where the ivory cannot support the socket.
even without a calipers I’l’ try to tale some measurement:
head bore 1,88cm and 1,88cm
LH 1,87 and 1,50cm
RH ends 1,24cm
ending bore 1,16 cm
Sounding lenght 58,5
McGee indicator (C{#}-D#) is 256mm
uncommon
-those dreaded pewter plugs for C#/C
-5 key-holes fitted the ball pads
while the Eb key has an edge hole (a standard clarinet pad will be fine)
-graduate wooden slide (as older flute)
Also:
I need stop play it, true. is addictive!
the flute is impressive light, and the tennons very loose until I play
it for about 5/7 minutes. after that I stop and unmount the flute.
How can I rehydrate the timber? who much time it will take?
… you’ll see one of the two entries at that length is my C. Nicholson’s Improved, Prowse #3904. There’s another Prowse Nicholson further up at 258mm. I also have a Clementi Nicholson’s small hole flute (Nicholson’s Unimproved?) way up the top at 264. I would have expected a Clementi flute to have had a longer C#-D# length than 256.
It would be very nice now to find a C. Nicholson’s Improved with the Clementi label and check its C#-D# length. Anyone?
