“The middle section of this flute is stamped Rudal & Rose no 15 piazza covent garden London.serial no 3527? three other sections have Rudal & Rose London. i have taken extra pictures should you wish to see them. Mounts and keywork look to be of solid silver to me (but you decide). o.l. is 26 3/8 inches approx. Flute experts are welcome to contact me with there opinions on both the price and quality, happy playing.”
This cat sells all kinds of funky sticks, I like him but haven’t bought anything yet.
You are right Loren.
Half a dozen cracks in the middle joint, & one lower down. Nickel plates to the C keys ( ! ) , an odd key.
But it does seem to be a Rudall, or at very least a decent early copy.
I had a bad experience with this outfit. Although I paid promptly for the flute I purchased, I was told I would receive negative feedback if I left the same for them after they refused to deal with my concerns. A number of the flutes I have seen listed by them appear to be pieced together from different flutes. As always with ebay, caveat emptor.
where do you see nickel plate on the C key? I just see brass springs, but the keys seem sterling silver to me. (I have never heard of nickel plate keys on a real Rudall)
This flute is probably not made of several different instruments: these rings are very uncommon.
IMHO, the cracks are not a problem even in the headjoint, because they can in general be repaired very easily by a good flute maker. (My Rudall has such cracks, and plays perfectly, repaired by Tom Aebi) And a lot of people who play vintage Rudalls use new headjoints…
I just see one real problem: the pewter plug in the D#. That’s noisy, and if it does not close perfectly, it ruins the low D.
Good price now ($3000), but higher would not be reasonable, I think.
Beware-- take Terry’s – and all – concerns seriously since there will probably be no possibility for adjustments to be made after the flute is paid for and received.
The rings are decidedly un-Rudall-like. The cracks wouldn’t nec be a problem in the HJ, but cracks elswehere in the body of the flute could be problematic. Rudalls have indeed been made with nickel keys though these generally show a later serial number.
The flute might be made by Rudall but if it is a copy, no matter how well it plays, the price is way too high. Anybody thinking of bidding should only do so with a money-back guarantee if the flute turns out not to be a Rudall. Or, the prospective buyer should have the flute paid for by an escrow service.
I’d bet that the person who does buy the flute doesn’t read this forum.
rudal and rudall? personally i like rudall’s a lot better. i hope it’s just a typo. one would expect to see the interlocking foot keys around this number also…
You’re right, and actually I would never buy an instrument of that price without watching it very carefully and playing it.
The risk that it would be a fake seems unlikely to me, though. It looks old and well made: look at the terrible false “RUDAIL” on Terry McGee’s website!
It’s true that 3000 Rudalls have in general interlocking keys…
But there are so much very different Rudalls that were made.
I did not mention nickel plate. I referred to the ( square) plates under the pewter plugs of the C keys. Who has ever seen such things on a silver mounted flute ?( and a putative Rudall at that ).
I think it strange if anybody contemplating paying so much for a flute is blase about so many cracks. Even if the tone is unaffected after expensive repairs the value is.
How does the flute come to have an odd key ?
Mr Paris is lucky to have not come across fake Rudalls of late. We must hope that his luck holds out.
If he bought one off this vendor he would perhaps struggle to get his money back, especially after it has been described as a " Rudal "
A typo ? I doubt it !
In fact a pewter plug on the D# key, is quite a common feature on real Rudalls (On Migoya’s website: flutes number 1292, 1317, 1959, 2602, 2632, 2928, etc … Have keys like that).
On my flute: 3 cracks / less than 200 dollars. Is that an “expensive repair”?
I don’t understand why you’re so agressive. There is really no reason.
I am not aware, Mr Paris, that I have been aggressive with you.
I am worried , however, that you won’t read what is written. I know, having a number of Rudall and Rose flutes myself, that they have pewter plugs. Who doubts it ? What I don’t know they have and what I have referred to is nickel plates under the pewter plugs. Get it ?
On this flute Head crack, barrel crack and quite a number of others. Of no consequence ? It is when the retail value is considered. Is a repaired flute in the same class financially as a repaired one ?
We can soon find you repaired Rudalls if you think they are the same and of the same value !
I have made no reference to a pewter plugged D# key which is represented on ,I seem to remember, more than one of my Rudalls.
All the best to you, dear Mr Paris.
( and we don’t know what class of work was done on your cracks. Were
they properly screw pinned after the tube had been removed, and the head and barrel reamed, or was it botched ? We need to know, before commenting on value for money of repairs !! ).
If you weren’t aggressive, please accept my apologies, I hope you’ll understand that my english will never be as good as yours.
I had understood you were talking about nickel plates under the pewter plugs, so I reiterate my question: how do you know those plates are made of nickel?
And if you made no reference to pewter plugged D#, then what “odd key” were you talking about?
On another hand it’s true that it seemed not too expensive to me just because, as a european, 3000 dollars those days is a lot of money, but not too much I think. I would not have been interested if the flute was for 3000 euros…
I just wanted to say: this flute is not mine, I am not trying to make you buy it, and as I said, I will not: I’m not sure that it is worth this price.
