Left handed players might be interested in item no. 320254838869 which is up on ebay at the moment.
You won’t see one of these every day of the week!
All the Best
Hammy
What an unique find Hammy! I don’t think I’ve ever seen an antique left handed flute before.
Eric
I’ve been , as you might say, heavily involved with flutes since the mid 1970s. This is the second left handed one that I’ve come across ( bar those in collections)
Hammy
Your flute makes me wish I was left handed.
It seems fairly common that the Firth/Pond/Hall/Meachem family of American flutes play well at 440. Did the US use 440 as standard pitch early or could the US simply reflect the amalgamation of all of our European immigrants and their varied pitches - with 440 allowing the largest compromise to play a bit higher and lower?
Eric
Wow, a very handsome flute that got my attention. Take a look at this flute that I picked up from a garage sale. It is out for some work by one of the contributers here to see just what we have here. It is marked William Hall & Son, Brooklyn, N.Y. Maybe he will chime in here, but have a look, its messy but worth a try.
http://picasaweb.google.com/hollhort/HallSonFlute?authkey=UBgP4pTnzVI
Yes, your flute has been a work in progress! tenon replacements, reforging keys, new barrel, years of crud build up… It looks a lot like Hammy’s flute, though his has seen less use, possibly because it is a lefty? I think that Hall had a lot of influence in the key design, as you can see in both these flutes.
The tuning is usually a lot better then the English flutes for the most part. I suspect that a lot of English imports were re-branded, in the early days. I wouldn’t think they would buy a English flute just after the war to gain freedom? I have seen F,H and P flutes with “patent stamps” on the ivory rings, I wouldn’t think that would be necessary in the colonies? These flutes have more of the tuning issues, flat foot etc. The flutes with these flat key cups seem to be American made.
Dang.
Had I not just dropped my yearly toy money on a new computer, I’d be all over that 
I wonder if Henke might be interested?
You a lefty? (or is your avatar a negative) I am a lefty, but learned to play right handed… Sure looks like a nice flute!
I’m actually right-handed, sortof. . . but play winds lefty. The avatar is my Sam Murray 6-key lefty (More flute than I know what to do with.) So it’s not like I need a lefty antique. But, dang, what an opportunity.
Here’s why I am a flefty:
As a teenager I started playing music seriously when I took GHB lessons. As you may know, one starts GHB by learning fingering on a practice chanter. So I took lessons. I sat across the table from my teacher.
And mirrored everything she did.
It was months before we caught the mistake. Since I was about to order my first set of pipes, we decided to just go with it. On pipes, the only difference between lefty and righty sets is where you cut the holes for the drones in the bag.
What’s weird is that I learned how to play recorders correctly in college. But there’s enough of a crossover between flute/whistle and pipes that I figured “why not keep with what I already have?” In fact I think my first post here solicited advice on this topic.
Wormdiet, yours is the funniest story to me of how someone came to play left-handed. I’m right-handed but I taught myself the whistle left-handed and then the irish flute. After learning how to play the silver flute, I learned how to play the irish flute right-handed too. I use different finger/holding techniques to play left and right-handed.
Yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous.
I write with my left hand but play sports righty.
Apparently Seamus Egan plays whistles one way and flute the other. . . . that’s gotta be the weirdest example of a lefty/righty issue.
Only one hour left! (for the lefty)
somebody got a deal at $630 
Reserve not met.
literacy!!! you want literacy!!!
eedjit in’he
Ugh.. . .
slaps self, backwards.
Interesting. This must be Andrew Kirby’s old flute. He had one in his collection which he acquired as a curiosity. I was very interested in this flute, he was to put it into playing order and then we’d discuss a price. That was a couple of months before he left us. I wonder who restored it?
Alas, I haven’t played flute for months. Right now I’m sitting here with a spiral fracture to my left upper arm so I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I really hope this flute finds a nice home though, I’ve often wondered what happened to it. Strange thing I should visit these forums for the first time in ages just to see this…
Henke, what a bummer! Hope you get back in playing condition soon! I remember Andrew speaking about a lefty flute, but I didn’t know it was a William Hall. I think this one was restored by Hammy. It would be a nice playing flute, for a lefty, the right hand version I have is a great player.
I’m sure his flute was a Firth, Pond & Co like this one.
Right, I missed that it was Hammy selling it, and he who alerted us to it. Seems to have done a very good job with it.
The restored flute from ebay
And here it is in it’s original condition from Andrew’s collection
I would love to give this one a home. But I know I wouldn’t play it as much as it deserves (even without the fracture, which has only happened less than a week ago)