Hi. I am a bit confused and need some help.
I bought a wooden flute in London at All Flutes Plus in 2000 or 2001. I only got the information that it was handmade and at the time it costed 500 GBP (today about 600 Euros). At the time I did’nt know anything about flutemakers and did’nt ask many questions.
I have searched around lately and I was of the impression that this was maybe a Martin Doyle flute. I have been in contact with him and he cannot recall ever having made flutes with middle section, like mine. Other than that it looks alot like his flutes.
Can anyone help me figuring out who made this flute. It plays very nice and the craftmanship is very good in my opinion.
the weird thing is the lack of a foot joint; Casey Burns doesn’t put on on his folk flute and Phil Bleazey also makes a flute without a foot joint, but they use flat rings.
but anyway, the lack of the foot joint would be how Mr. Doyle knew it wasn’t one of his flutes; almost all modern makers that i know of put on foot joint on their flutes.
that’s correct kkrell.. M. Doyle does not have foot joint on his traditional keyless flutes, but what gave it away as NOT his flute was the middle section.
I do believe this must be a Lejeune flute, the price range seems to be right (his flutes cost around 650 euros today) and at the time (2000-2001) the british pound was really expensive.
I have sent Geert Lejeune a mail and I have studied the pictures and description on his web site. Looks like my flute is one of his own semi-Pratten styled flutes. The finger holes on mine are quite big, and so is the sound. It is a somewhat challengeing flute to play, needing alot of air. But it is the only one I’ve ever played so if I can master this one eventually, then I can take on every flute
I just want to mention that I considered selling this flute here on this board some weeks ago, and I had it posted as a M. Doyle flute. I am glad I did’nt sell. I would hate to sell as a Doyle flute, when it is in fact not one of his. I am sorry about almost making that mistake, but it was not my intention to mislead anyone… That was also the reason for not posting a wanted price, because I was waiting for a reply from M. Doyle for a confirmation.
I am also very happy that I did not sell because the flute is a keeper!!
The years of purchase, or the price still aren’t making sense to me, but good luck in identifying the flute. Seems from the price that one would expect a high-end flutemaker, even with a good markup from the store. Looking at historical currency charts, in 2001, the GBP was about $1.42 USD. 500 GBP would have been approx. $710 US. A high-quality 6-key blackwood flute with silver keys cost about $800 in that year. Not counting any Value-Added-Tax. For most of 2001, a dollar was worth more than a Euro.
Yes, looks very similar. Do you remember if the tuning slide was made of brass? On my flute the metal part attached to the head is brass, or some gold/brass coloured metal.
Some of my metal rings came loose also, didn’t lose them luckily. I had one small crack repaired this winter.
Just recieved a email from Geert Lejeune where he confirms that my flute is definetly one of his
At the time he didn’t have the tools to stamp his flutes, but now he does.
I am very relieved that I finally know what flute I am playing… Back to practise..
Geert was very friendly, though a bit slow to reply, you could check with him.
since then!