Calling all photos of Fentums

Irish Flute
21

Gorgeous Dave, thanks for the photos. Mine is very similar indeed, to both in fact, but has a lip plate. So, here is a not so very clear photo (more photos coming soon):

“Fentum 78 Strand London”, ca 1840.

The tuning is particularly good, lovely intonation. Sterling silver and I haven’t quite figured out what kind of wood it is: it’s much darker than cocus, looks very like blackwood with yellow flecks appearing under bright light.

The following ad (from The Lancet, 1844) seems to talk about this kind of flute (with “tips”, caps on each end, which Dave’s flutes have too, and which may be considered the “patent head”?) and so 1844 sounds right with Henry Fentum as maker:

Flutes, 78, Strand – Eight keyed Cocoa Flutes, with patent head, silver keys (double springs), tips, & c., with rosewood case, cleaner, and instruction book, 5l. 5s., or German Silver, including case, & c., 2l. 12s. 6d., manufactured by HENRY FENTUM, Professor of the Flute, 78, Strand, London. Flutes repaired and taken in exchange.

It looks very like Francis Fentum’s design too, so did they work together, or run around to each other’s workshops to copy designs? The keys looks like the work of Wylde.
Shane

22

I don’t think they allow that sort of thing

23

For my windows/firefox combination I can do it this way

Go to http://yfrog.com/n2dsc05803zj
Left click on photo
Right click on the photo
click on “Copy Image Location”

I then right click and “Paste” http://a.yfrog.com/img830/503/dsc05803z.jpg
Then add the code on either sides like this

[img]http://a.yfrog.com/img830/503/dsc05803z.jpg[/img]

You will want to shrink your photos down in a program like paint before doing that though.

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:tomato: I thought I’d tried most everything…

missed the left click first bit

25

Photo included now above

26

Looks great! Now we need close ups…
Is there a cut away on the C# key for the Eb key cup? That design is on a few Wylde flutes I have seen.
I think several makers used the same key maker, as very few makers made the keys also.

27

Photos of my Fentum 78 Strand London:






















28

More on Fentum. An advertisement from 1838 (before the one from 1844 quoted above) showing Henry Fentum before he moved to the Strand to make/sell his own flutes. Advertisement from The Musical World, 1838:

TO FLUTE PLAYERS:
EIGHT KEYED COCOA FLUTES, with patent head, double springs, plates to the C keys; the keys, tips, caps, sliding tube, & c., of the best silver, price only 5l. 5s.; with German silver keys, &c., only 2l. 12s. 6d.
These instruments are made of the best wood, by most experienced workmen, and are warranted perfect in tune. To be had of Mr. Fentum, Professor of the Flute, at 17, Northumberland Street (only) near Charing-Cross.
N.B. A trial allowed. Lessons moderate. Flutes repaired and exchanged.

Perhaps the “most experienced workmen” mentioned above include Wylde, among others. The “warranted perfect in tune” part is ambitious for the time, but I have to say mine is almost perfectly in tune - very slightly flat D, but very possible to get around it.

Shane

29

Further info on Fentum and Wylde: looks like Charles Wylde was Henry Fentum’s “shop-lad” in the Strand London in 1845, according to a court case in 1845 where both Fentum and Wylde testified against a counterfeiter:

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/images.jsp?doc=184502030101

The poor counterfeiter got 6 months for a counterfeit coin!
Shane

30

from ancestry.com…“…I am looking for more information about Henry Wylde Flute Maker. I have him born 1807 Westerham Kent, UK. and later in Lambeth and Charing Cross manufacturing flutes employing 1 man. He married Ann ? from Cambs and they had 9 children, including Charles who was also involved with flutes. Would be interested to learn moe about your probate information and other Wylde details.
Thanks…”

31

This is very interesting, you would think that Henry Wylde would have had his son apprenticing under him by 1845, not working the counter of Fentums shop, strange…

32

As a “shop-lad” he may have worked the counter at Fentum’s shop as well as learn to make instruments (with a Fentum or with his father Henry Wylde?). All we know is that on the day and at that moment referred to in the case, he was Fentum’s shop-lad. We can understand the Fentum-Wylde relation a little more: Wylde clearly knew Fentum well-enough to send him his son, and worked with Fentum as well as Rudall and Rose and others.

33

More on Fentum, this time Francis Fentum, mentioned in the London Gazette, April 1849 as flutemaker - in debt, so I believe…
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/20966/pages/1198/page.pdf

That makes three Fentums listed here and there, including Langwill, as “flutemakers”:

  1. Francis Fentum (maker from 1837-1845) - Stamp address: “36 Queen’s Row, Walworth, London”

  2. Henry Fentum (maker from c1837 -1859) - Two known stamp addresses: often “78 Strand, London” because he also ran the “Fentum Music Shop” at that address, taking over from Mary Ann Fentum in 1844; flutes made prior to that, I believe, carry the stamp “6 Surrey Street, Strand, London” (see Dayont collection); Henry Fentum also had an advertisement in 1838 giving “17 Northumberland Street, Charing Cross” as his contact address where he advertises flutes made by “most experienced workmen”, but I have never seen a flute with this address on it. In any case, by 1844 he was advertising flutes “manufactured by Henry Fentum, professor of the flute”. Henry also played flute at the Opera down the road. These guys didn’t waste time, did they?!

  3. Jonathan Fentum (maker fom 1850-1856) - Stamp address: I have only ever seen “J Fentum London.”

What’s funny is, these makers did not know they were making “Irish flutes”! Or did they…

Sorry if I indulge in my own interests here, but some of you might find it intersting/informative:

My ongoing detective work - or healthy obssession - has lead me to believe that my own flute stamped “Fentum 78 Strand” was probably made - at least in part, or with the help of other “most experienced workmen” as he says in one advertisement from 1838 - by Henry Fentum who took over the 78 Strand shop and who claimed not only to be a dealer but also a flute maker (“cocoa flutes manufactured by Henry Fentum, professor of the flute” says one advertisement). That is how I date my flute between 1838 and 1844, the dates of the two advertisements by Henry Fentum for 8 keyed cocoa flutes that I have found. The ad from 1838 (from “The Musical World” journal) does not give the 78 Strand address to contact him but instead “17 Northumberland Street, Charing Cross”; but, as Henry Fentum was going to take over the 78 Strand shop in 1844, perhaps he was allowed to sell his flutes at 78 Strand even before taking over that shop. What I need to do is find Fentum flute ads between 1838 and 1844 to find out when the first ads for Fentum 78 Strand flutes appeared: did they appear only in 1844 when he took over the shop?..

To think of the concentration of great flutemakers in London at that time, within walking distance of each other, as well as the fact that Dickens lived up the road, not to mention the great painter Turner, and all the other great artists and artisans, etc etc etc etc…

To be continued.

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Don’t forget that the 36 Queen’s Row per Langwill’s is 1837-1843. From 1844-1845 the address listed is 29 Queen’s Row, and I believe there are flutes stamped at the 2nd address.

35

I overlooked that, thanks a lot for pointing it out.

Further info: from what I can see, it looks like Henry Fentum and Henry Wylde worked a lot together: Wylde had a son called Charles, and Charles Wylde worked at Henry Fentum’s music shop at 78 Strand as his “shop lad” (according to a case of counterfeit coins at which both were called as witnesses; see one of my earlier posts under this subject). Furthermore, Wylde seems to have worked on some Fentum flutes, and may have been one of the “most experienced workmen” mentioned in Fentum’s flute advertisement of 1838, since both were working at the Charing Cross address at the time. Of course Wylde worked for Rudall, so we have a small community of great craftsmen, musicians and music dealers in a confined area of London around the time of Queen Victoria’s coronation.

36

I just finished restoring a Wylde /Fentum, lovely flute! In fact they have been coming out of the wood work, as I restoreed another earlier in the year.

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Looks like nobody was interested in the Fentum that went unsold on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.it/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150626234050&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:IT:1123

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It doesn’t go unseen, just unpurchased. Some of us would like Phil to put a little work into the flutes - maybe fix them up a little first. Certainly at least go so far as to post better photos.

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Or learn to start them at reasonable/attainable prices!

Here’s another newly-listed one - in a bit of a state!

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Easy fixes, right Jon?