A friend of mine found this Eb whistle in her loft and reckons it was owned by someone in the Shetland Islands and is at least 40 years old. I’m wondering if its an old Generation. Eb is etched into the whistle above the B hole and it appears to be surrounded by four lots of shallow grooving around the whistle, maybe where a badge was. The block looks like lead and although the windway is dirty and needs a good wash through, the whistle appears to need very little air.
My questions are:
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What is it and how old is it likely to be?
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Does it have any value for a collector?
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Should I clean the brass or leave the thick patina as it is?
Pretty much a standard issue late 19-early 20th century whistle (the Victorian ones tended to have a bit more in the way of decoration, this one is pretty plain). Did you check the tuning? They tend to be a half tone sharp of what is indicated on the whistle, not all of them though (maybe an indication of their age?). They shift on Ebay for €10-25, depending on who’s bidding.
Here’s a similar one, it has been polished in the past and most of the decorations have disappeared, except at the lower end.
…and add the usual disclaimer about lead fipples…
In a lot of cases the lead is covered. Not in the one I pictured though.
A maker’s shield on them can make them a bit more desirable to a collector although I have the impression one or two places were turning them out for a large number of sellers/makers, re-branding them as they went along.
I’ve not checked the tuning. I played it for less than a minute but with it having a lead fipple . . .
I looks similar to a Joseph Wallis whistle I found by googling Victorian whistles but they have an ornate badge on the front which may have fallen off this one. At the same time I know that Generation started with this design or something similar.
Should I clean the brass?
You can clean it if you like, be careful if any decoration comes up from under the grime you don’t polish that away. Many are without a maker’s badge/shield. Usually the ones with the key punched into them like yours and the one in my picture seem to be anonymous.
Generations were similar, first with the name punched in, later with the ‘british made’ label they carry to this day.
Some of the whistles were quite elaborate yokes:
Thanks! Where, Mr Gumby, is the “back of beyond”?
I polished up it and it came out looking similar to the first picture you posted, fairly plain but with some rings around the bottom end. I would still like to put a maker’s name to it if I could but that may be very difficult.
I would still like to put a maker’s name to it if I could but that may be very difficult.
If there’s no name, there’s no way of finding out I suppose. The problem is that when these whistles appear with a maker’s name, identical whistles appear with different maker’s badges on them. Re-branding and re-badging was all the rage at the time (as now I suppose), look for example at concertinas from the same period.
I guess so. Thanks anyway.