It came out of an estate sale some 60 miles south of London in Eastbourne, East Sussex. Probably the farthest it ever traveled until a two weeks ago.
8 key, cocus, cupro-nickel.
No visible makers marks.
Ribs on the inside of the rings and wood. Brass strike/slip plates for a few of the springs. (single springs) Cork dots and inset cork bumpers C#/C foot hinges.
There are key marks on some what might be a W and a /// or //// on others. Its still a little iffy though… I have no shots of that yet.
Jon C. was kind enough to fix some thin cracks in the back of the head and barrel. Original Emb. Very few cosmetic issues save for some ham handed pin removals at the foot a long time ago. grrr.
It speaks easily with nice complex sound.
3rd Oct all the way down to the plugs.
Intonation quite good at 440 considering its likely age.
Looks sweet.
W? I’m so bummed on antiques. Only thing I can think of is William (-Henry Potter) but that’s too much of a long shot. Maybe Terry can help?
Edit: Here’s a Potter flute (from Terry’s collection)
Hi Andrew,
Your Potter looks a lot like a Albert Liddle flute I worked on. I am working on a Potter flute right now that looks a lot like Anvill’s flute. This Potter has I.N stamped on the back of the C# key, this has also been spotted on R&R and Wylde flutes. The keys on my Fentum have this marking also. They must have all used the same key maker? Like the song goes “It’s a small world after all…”
Hi Andrew,
Your Potter looks a lot like a Albert Liddle flute I worked on. I am working on a Potter flute right now that looks a lot like Anvill’s flute. This Potter has I.N stamped on the back of the C# key, this has also been spotted on R&R and Wylde flutes. The keys on my Fentum have this marking also. They must have all used the same key maker? Like the song goes “It’s a small world after all…” http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Keymarks.htm
Here is the foot on the Potter.
I wish someone would get that time machine working, so we could find out aobut this stuff!
Key-maker out-sourcing speculation aside, my money’s on Wylde. It’s that barrel into upper body profile that is so distinctive - and soooooo R&R! Potter’s barrels are more, well, barrel-ly! Perhaps David M will lend us his eyes? Have you been on to him, Peri?
In R&R terms, I thought the straight, un-lobed upper C nat and the plain, overlapped foot C#/C configuration were early - up to c mid 1830s, and the square foot plates early to mid, replaced by round ones in the later, post 1840s, as a v. rough generalisation - I’m sure DM can advise us on that too.
I suspect Peri’s slash marks are simply workshop tracing marks and wouldn’t tell us very much because we don’t know their precise significance - do they pertain to the key sequence on a particular flute (easy to check out and discard as a hypothesis), to the key design itself (No.3 key type, No.4 key type etc.), to the individual key-maker for accounting purposes or to the particular flute as its parts move through the production process? Th “W” is more suggestive.
Jon’s Potter hasn’t got anything growing on it! That’s verdigris (copper oxidation product) from the German Silver keys. You can’t carbon test copper! Anyway, it’s too modern for meaningful C14 dating (given the nature of that technique and the standard deviations in the results) even if the organic component of the deposit that has caused the electrolytic leaching of the copper - (probably oil + general gunk) were contemporaneous with the flute, which is obviously very unlikely. Back to the time-machine, I’m afraid. (Sorry for the pedantry {well…} - archaeologist’s hat on.)
Beautiful flute(s), anyway. Peri, play us a toot on it while your fingers are warm and un-prised away!
Well, under closer inspection the plug plate construction and the foot block size and placement are different from the Potter.
The much smaller C hole and plug suggest a different bore profile.
Jon, the thing that struck me the most was the similarity between your Fentum and this Mystery flute.
Side by side I literally had a difficult time telling them apart and had to look for the stamp or the Emb cut. Even the wood looked exactly the same .
Far more similar in small details than different. Things that where different may be what may have been customer requests or whim on improved features.
I got the strong impression that both of them were crafted by the same hand.
Its only a theory. A crazy one, I know, but it is possible.
I think you were leaning that way as well… just not as far.
I wonder if Terry or David might have some insight?
Here is a photo of a R&R foot and my Fentum, that looks like a twin to Anvill’s.
The similarities that I see in this foot comparison, is the shape of the blocks, indentations at the “grasshopper knees”, shape of the strikes, cut away at the C# key, though Anvill’s doesn’t have the overlap, it is pretty close. To me it looks like the same maker.
