I have a Rudall Carte wooden flute, serial no. 3594 that I bought for £88 in 1969. Can anyone give me any details of it’s history. I have an idea that it was made in 1904. No cracks and the mechanism is still firm, without obvious wear.
It still plays well and could possibly do with a tweak sometime in the future.
How much do instruments like this sell for these days?
It has been an excellent flute and it is still very special to me,.
Any help would be appreciated.
Dave - Norfolk UK
PS I am happy to post a picture if I can be instructed how.
Hi dvdhat/Dave, and welcome.
Posting a picture and some basic dimensions would help me to comment better. Your info that it was made in 1904 appears correct from the data in Robert Bigio’s book on the firm.
You post pictures by uploading them to a webhost (e.g. photobucket, imageshack, flikr) and then obtaining the IMG code for the uploaded file and pasting that in your post here. Best to edit/compress your images to a max width of 700 pixels before uploading so that they don’t bump the page width here.
Please measure (in mm) the overall length of the assembled flute and also its sounding length - centre of embouchure hole to far, open, foot end.
Values depend on original spec, system, condition, completeness of associated kit (case, grease pot, swab-rod) and, most significantly, design pitch. High Pitch instruments, even in stunning condition, aren’t usually worth very much unless there’s something especially collectable about them. Concert Pitch ones in good, overhauled condition with (more-or-less) standard modern closed G# Böhm system and silver mechanism can be worth £2-2.5k. Exceptional instruments with collectable features may be worth more.