This weeks vintage eBay-Flute® Mystery maker. Experts needed

Hi,
Your foot keys look more like the Albert Liddle style foot keys, the larger flag touches and the round key plates. I think a lot of these flutes, especially the large dealers like Potter, Clementi, and a few others, had different makers. You can’t expect the owner of the company out there getting his hands dirty! :smiley:

I’m not sure I can add much other than to note that several of the keys have a lot in common with those on my T. Lindsay’s Improved (marketed by J.B. Cramer et al). It’s in my collection at http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/collection.html (although too small there to see fine details clearly).

Points in common are the very deep cups, particularly on the Eb, the very sharp pointing on the Eb, and the broad Short F touch. The touch end of the upper c key was broken off on mine (as seen in the image) but I’ve since replaced it having seen an image of another T Lindsay - it had the same straight shaft as Aanvil’s.

Could be whoever supplied them to Cramer, Addison and Beale also supplied them to other dealers, some not in the habit of stamping their flutes.

Lindsay is the author of The Elements of Flute Playing, which includes A Few Practical Hints (at http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Lindsay.htm), the only such detailed advice I can remember on choosing and maintaining a flute.

Terry

Hi,
I have one of these Cramer flutes in the shop also. Your right Terry, it has very similar key work, I will try to post some photos of it when I can.

Here is the foot joint of the J. B. Cramer flute I am working on, has the same look.

It has the same block shape and the keys look similar, they are marked with a horizontal dash under the key, like my Gerock Wolf 8 key.
We had it all sewed up nicely, now I am totally confused… :blush:

Curiouser and curiouser!

I love this stuff.

Its Archeology really.

Well, I’ve set them side by side (image wise) and there are some differences. Eb key length and placement on the block being one, also my flute has a larger spoon cup dia.

I guess I’ll have to trot it back up and we should take some actual measurements and compare bore profiles maybe.

That being said, and I hope David M will not mind for saying but, I believe he owns the only known marked William Camp of Rudall & Rose. He feels that this flute is a fair match.

A photo comparison would be optimum at this point but David is, of course, the go to guy for all things R&R. I very much value his insight.

More to come… I hope.

It’s not just Archaeology, but a sub-discipline thereof known as Typology - the organising into groups or sequences of related artifacts by comparison of their physical similarities and differences and the reflection therein of technological change. Scientific up to a point, but then becomes open to subjective interpretation and dispute, a bit like Art experts trying to provenance an unsigned painting by its pictorial style and brush-stroke technique! Which is pretty much where we are now! Fun, though!

Peri, have you invited David to peruse and contribute to this thread? He may not have hit upon and read it despite having been active on a couple of other threads within this one’s lifetime.