I recently acquired this flute, but need to pay some unforseen bills now - so I have to let it go again, regretfully. It is a very special flute indeed: cylindrical bore with tapered wooden (Böhm) headjoint and simple system, BUT perfectly playable in 440Hz! Eight pillar-mounted keys, cocuswood, metal parts could be sterling or nickel silver, I’m not sure since they’re highly polished and no stain/patina is visible. The keywork is brilliant, I haven’t had better keywork on a flute so far. Böhm style footjoint, all keys are where one would expect them. All stamps are intact. The flute has been made in 1933. Practically all modern Böhm flute headjoints will fit this flute, I tried it with a Yamaha 311 silver head and it worked really well. But this flute sounds nothing like a Böhm flute!
This used to be Calum Stewarts flute, who sold it to me. Peter Worrell also based his Rudall Carte style D flute on this very flute. Calum’s “for sale” thread is available here (click me), there are also some photos. The flute I’m selling is the one with the wide silver band. Calum used it on all of his recent recordings (and you should get them too if you don’t have them already!)
The flute comes with a Northwind case and Altieri case cover (that has a damaged zipper, but the other one works fine). Calum also gave me a low whistle head for this flute for free, which basically turns the flute into a fully chromatic low whistle. Really cool! I’ll throw that one into the deal as well.
Edited to add a photo of the lot:
I’m looking to get 2000 euro for the flute with case, cover and whistle head. That is what I paid Calum. Send me an email if you’re interested. Thanks!
I see from your photo and from Calum’s original photos that the tuning slide seems to fit into the body of the flute rather than into a barrel which would contain the female part of the slide. Is it meant to be this way? The picture of Peter’s flute would suggest the same configuration.
I hope Steffen won’t mind me answering Seanie’s Q.
When this flute passed through my hands, it was in original condition with a normal “French slide” type RC&Co. head. It looked like this after I overhauled it and when Calum bought it:
Calum had a lot of things done to it. He wanted to be able to use modern heads on it, so he had Robert Bigio make a conversion of the upper body tenon to permit that. I don’t know if there was any subseqent alteration to that by Peter Worrell. Initially Calum had a Bigio-made head to fit it, then subsequently other heads. At some point he had the original head also converted, I don’t know whether by Bigio or Peter Worrell. Whatever, you can be sure the work has been done to the highest standards. I assume the embouchure cut remains original, though. Calum also had a good deal of other things done to it, including adjustments of the tuning (hence the bushed tone-holes). The upshot is that, although hardly in original condition (!), it is much more playable than when I handled it (wasn’t at all bad then, mind - I doubt Calum would have taken to it if it had been!) and also versatile in terms of being able to try different (modern standard) heads of different materials and different embouchure cuts with it.
Many thanks for that information. (BTW I liked seeing Terry Coyne in the video playing the flute that you have for sale. I only met Terry once over thirty years ago on a visit to Mabb Lane. I was very friendly with his brothers Mick and Eamonn back in the day.)
Thanks Jem, for your reply. I’ve been on the road for a few days and didn’t manage to pop in here. Basically it’s all right - and yes, the flute’s performance is second to none, I’ve never had an antique playing that well, and I had a few - three conical Rudalls, a Hudson Pratten, and some Fentums and Wyldes. It definately isn’t a flute for the collector though, due to the alterations - it is a player’s flute, and a great one too.
I’m sure this is a very nice flute for the right person, a player, but I think the reason it hasn’t been snapped up already is the price, 2.000 euros. The recession is still ongoing and I’ve noticed that old English flutes are difficult to sell nowadays for the prices people gladly paid 5-6 years ago. Also Akiba is selling an high pitch 1920/30’s ebonite R&C for 542 euros. Maybe better to hold on to it till the economy picks up?
"It is a very special flute indeed: cylindrical bore with tapered wooden (Böhm) headjoint and simple system, BUT perfectly playable in 440Hz! " Gabriel says.
The sounding length with slide entirely closed is 600 mm, which is what a Böhm bore needs for playing at 440Hz. The scale is also way too long for being high pitch. This flute was built as a concert pitch instrument and still is one.
Exactly. This was never a HP flute. It was CP when it passed through my hands and was then clearly totally unmodified. Had it been otherwise, I would never have recommended it to Calum.
