J Wallis - newbie question

Whistle
1

Hello to all on the chiff and fipple board,

I have been a background chiffer for a few years popping in now and again to read the interesting topics, primarily a whistler for my own pleasure and a bit of flute when I can get a clear run at it without interuptions, ( which ain’t that often ) I was going through my whistles this afternoon and having a toot on some that i bought years back, one in particular made by J.WALLIS, IN C, brass body with what I assume to be a pewter plug, I have put tape around this so as not to make skin contact with the pewter.

I was just wondering did Makers like Wallis knock out these whistles as a bit of quick cash for the toy market??? or did they have a place within certain music circles.

I also have some other interesting old whistles, a lovely old brass model in high g- it has a harp symbol on a plate wrapped around the whistle and is marked trade mark - with the innitials j . h then the words in tune and london, i’d love to know more about it and in what circles would a whistle in high G be used for, toy??? it is a very sweet sounding whistle and is like it says in tune.

lefty

2

any chance you can post a picture of the whistles? might help identify em for you

3

Do a search on “Wallis” here in the whistle forum. You’ll find a few posts.

For example: https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/anyone-know-anything-about-this-whistle/29087/1

Wallis was a maker of flutes, fifes and whistles active in London between 1848-1928.

Here’s a demo of the Wallis G: http://www.tradlessons.com/?p=110

4

Hi Nick,

i’m not that techy but I know there is a load of threads regarding putting up pics, so I will have a go.

Thanks MTguru, I did a bit of searching on google and it looks like the wallis company had a market for flutes in the early days then branched out into Pianos, table accordian, acordians, something called a Giorgi flute, end blown and whistles, it looks like when the sons joined the company they introduced a lot more instruments, in todays market I suppose this would be like Yamaha instruments.

I also read the post regarding the wallis whistle in G, I assumed that the plug was pewter, after reading the post and Jerry’s sound advice, I also found the tradschool video of the wallis high G being played great, I cant play it as good as my fingers stumble over each other, as this is a very small whistle, that was the reason for my original question, what would the purpose of a high G whistle be apart from a very playable toy instrument for a child, interestingly enough there is a wallis whistle on ebay and an old done up flute, but being a lefty it would be a bit of a waste, I will try and get the high G pics pasted in, as this whistle has been difficult to trace its origin.

thanks lefty

5

Mystery almost solved, I have been searching using J and H whistles, just tried jh whistle and found this below, which is a start. its a set of 8, i would think high G is the first up to alto G??

DCM 0641a-h: J. H. / Vertical Whistle Flute

AUTHOR/CREATOR
J. H.

CREATED/PUBLISHED
London: 20c

NOTES
DCM ledger: “Set of 8 ‘Tin’ Flageolets.”

Key Holes System: 0/6 holes.

Mark Additional: See DCM 364.

Mark Maximum: TRADE MARK / (harp with figure of woman) / IN TUNE / (pitch) / LONDON (within heart shape, and surrounded by J H monogram)

Provenance: A. V. Ebblewhite, London, 17 Aug. 1926.

SUBJECT
Instrument Type: Vertical Whistle Flute

MEDIUM
Brass with gold-color lacquer.; 21.1 cm., 23.5 cm., 26.75 cm., 28.35 cm., 31.95 cm., 35.8 cm., 37.5 cm., 42.45 cm.

PART OF
Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, Music Division, Washington, D.C. 20540

DIGITAL ID
dcmflute 0641
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/dcmflute.0641