Here’s an unusual thing on eBay! It is very much in a German style from the earlier-mid C19th. I can’t really recall seeing any Scandinavian made antique flutes before! I’m guessing (no sounding length given) from the overall length that it is probably lower in pitch than A=440 - 63cm for a short, D foot is too long for our purposes. Still perhaps some of our Swedish members should be looking to repatriate it! Starting price is pretty reasonable, IMO.
That’s interesting Jem, thanks for that. I’ve mentioned it now on the Swedish piping/traditional music site in case anyone there is interested. J V Wahl is mentioned in Henrik Norbecks essay (in Swedish) there’s a summary of the essay here in English: http://www.norbeck.nu/flute/tratonen.htm
“Tvärflöjter importerades från Tyskland och England, men det fanns även några byggare i Sverige. Den främste inhemske flöjtmakaren var J W Wahl i Landskrona. Han byggde 1830-50 ett “icke så ringa antal” flöjter av ebenholz, grenadilj och buxbom, de flesta med H-fot. En flöjt av grenadiljträ med silverklaffar kostade omkring 230 kronor (a a:29).”
Translated is:
Flutes were imported from Germany and England, but there were even makers in Sweden. The most prominent Swedish maker was J W Wahl of Landskrona. He made 1830-50 very many flutes of ebony, African blackwood and boxwood. Most of them with a B foot (B = H and Bb = B at that time in Sweden, still in use which can be confusing). A flute made of African blackwood with silver keys cost around 230 crowns. (don’t know what a crown was worth back then)
There were a handful of flutemakers in Sweden back in the day it seems. Landskrona is here in the south of Sweden about 25 minutes drive from where I live. Used to be a thriving shipbuilding port, but now has the reputation of being a dangerous place, gangland murders, unemployment, and lots of right wing nutters
Wasn’t Sweden on the riksdaler at the time?
“Wasn’t Sweden on the riksdaler at the time?”
Aye, prehaps Henrik Norbeck means 230 Swedish crowns in todays value?
True, although both have been used in parallel to each other, in slang.
Hi,
I asked seller a question on this flute, regarding pitch, he has no idea what it is pitched at, so I guess it will be snapped up by a collector or player of early music.
yvie 
I’ve elicited the sounding length from the vendor. He gives it as 534.25 mm (!!!). At that, depending on the bore and the player’s embouchure style, it may just be OK at A=440. Put it this way: I have some short foot (to D) French and German later C19th flutes here. The ones which are not Low Pitch (diapason normal) have slide-closed SLs of c 520mm but play at 440 with about 10-15mm slide extension. The definitely LP ones have closed SLs of c 540 mm. I also have an early C19th (probably 1820s) English boxwood 1-key. Not a baroque flute, though superficially looking like one, it has definite C19th larger, ovoid embouchure cut and medium tone-holes. It has no tuning slide and, fully closed up its SL is 530 mm, at which it is a tad sharp of 440, though with a woefully flat low D. Open the head-body joint about 4-6mm and it plays at 440.
So, no guarantees, but it may be OK for c 440 - certainly it is not definitely LP. (Not that there would be anything “wrong” with it if so - just no practical use to us kind of fluters - fine for period instrument folk specialising in the Romantic era.)
Edited for silly figure typo.
Interesting measures Jem, given that the sounding lenght my short-foot Henry Potter is only about 507 mm, and plays at 440 with the slide opened about 16 mm. Quite surprising…
So, it sold for EUR 610.00 (£538). Good price, I’d say. I wonder where it went.
Indeed. I would also like to know where it went. I do hope it came back to Sweden. If only for novelty’s sake.
Ohhh, I have to visit this forum more often…
I live in Malmö, quite close to Landskrona, where Wahl was based. I have only seen one Wahl-flute before. It was at the home of a flute collector nearby. It was a beautiful flute, but hopelessly broken…
This e-bay flute seems to be in very good condition.
Wahl made a lot of different instruments, such as bassons and french horns.