great looking flute anyway. compliments to the buyer: what a great wood, much darker than standard even for 1830ish.Anyway a wonderful geo. Rudall is about to show up in the next few days and another R&R as well.
A great week for great flutes!
the address is accurate
it is not the lowest serial number extant…and there are those sans serial number of this address extant (of which I owned 3)
and the Eb saltspoon appears on RR earlier than this one.
lovely flute.
A decent price £1,652.50 ($2,391) considering the head joint and barrel crack. How much would it cost to fix the head joint and barrel to get the flute up and running? The tenons have been corked which could point to an overhaul at some point in the life of the flute where the padded Eb key replaced an original pewter Eb flat. Speculation I know, but the oval shape around the padded Eb key seating doesn’t look like Rudall & Rose’s work, rather it looks like someone has worked on the wood where a square strike plate would had sat in order to accommodate the larger diameter of the padded cup. No matter, looks like a good one, congrats to the new owner
I’d say it is quite clear from the photos that, while the Eb pad seat cutaway may be a little unusual in shape, it never had a square receiving plate for a pewter plug key and has not been modified from one.
Hello Thomas,
I was interested in the shape of the Eb pad seat on this Rudall & Rose myself. I have since discovered the exact same shaped seating on the salt-spoon/purse-pad Eb key on my Clementi Nicholson’s improved.
The Nicholson flute in the following link has a similar but not as pronounced Eb key seat as the Rudall & Rose and my Nicholson.
I’m still not convinced that the Eb key seating is original on 463. The cutaway around the Eb cup on two Rudalls I have is much carefully crafted, as are others that I have seen, in that the cutaway follows neatly the round shape of the key’s cup. Had another look at the seller’s photos, and am now inclined to agree with you, Jem, that my speculation regarding a square strike plate is mistaken.
I have Rudalls with both square and round strike plates, and with padded Eb, and the foot joint wood work is of very high quality and precision on all of them, which is why I still think the Eb key seat on 463 has been manipulated at some point, perhaps to improve the sealing quality or to accommodate a replacement key?
Uniflute as you say the Eb seat cutaway on the photo of the Nicholson isn’t as extreme as the one on 463. Interesting that your own Nicholson has the same ovalish Eb key seating as R&R 463