Hi Folks, I’m new here, so howdy and thanks for having me! Does anyone know anything about Thomas Prowse the 19th c flutemaker? I know the basics: that he made Nicholson Improved flutes for Mr. Clementi after Clementi’s retirement. Does anyone know anything more about Prowse? For example, my flute is stamped “T. Prowse, London”, no other marks. Any further info would be appreciated.
Just a thought: I last visited this board three hours ago. I log in again, and suddenly there are 15 new threads. At first I was delighted, then I realised that 10 or so of them were written by the same person, usually 3 or 4 lines of text and a question at the end. Please, please, use the search function and avoid flooding the board with hundreds of questions that we have already covered. And if you have questions you don’t find answers to with the search function, you can always start a new thread, but it doesn’t look good when you start 10 new threads within half an hour, that’s boarderline spamming.
Other than that, welcome aboard and enjoy your sunday dram of
whisky 
Understood, sorry for all the threads! I’m only learning how to use this message board…
there were two Thomas Prowses…Jr and Sr
Sr did the work for Clementi
Jr did most of the work post-Clementi
Both were good flutes (I own one of the earlier numbered Clementis and it plays very well)
Thomas Prowse is of no relation to the Prowse in the firm Keith, Prowse & Co (of which his first name was NOT Keith…that’s the last name of his partner)
…
this looks like a later one, with the “flattened” surface of the RH missing.
The flat surface was very much a Prowse trademark.
I’m curious, though…several of the early Prowse flutes have ivory rings set in just under the silver ones at the joints.
I’d bet if you looked at yours you’d see the “white” ring of ivory just between the silver and wood.
Does yours have this?
If it’s missing, then this is a late Jr.-made flute when he began to abandon the practice.
The keys and ferrules are nickel-silver, not sterling. But the wood is cocus. I don’t see any ivory under the rings. The flutes plays very nicely when I blow well. But it has the frequent problems of old flutes: a flat D even when I blow very well, and a sharp C#. If this is a late model, then it might make sense that the keys and ferrules are nickel-silver rather than sterling: Pratten’s Perfected flutes used nickel-silver also from the late 1850s as did Rudall and Rose and Rudall Rose and Carte.
What do you mean by the way by “when he began to abandon the practice”? I want to believe that he made this flute with love and passion, just as, I dunno, Yeats wrote his last poems with love and passion…!
Anyway, thanks again for all the replies.
love and passion, unfortunately, gave way to money and necessity.
this is surely a late flute.
Nearly all Pratten-Perfected 8key flutes (rememember, even the Boehm-looking multi-key models were called the “perfected”) were german silver keys. The only sterling silvers (that I’ve seen) are of the Hudson-key variety.
Same was true of the Hudson-Pratten flutes before Boosey.
A sharp C#? Hmmmm. Most are flat unless you vent the C-nat key, especially the Prattens. I’ve seen little of that problem with Rudalls.
You make it sound bad David. It actually has a lovely tone and for the moment the only original “fault” I could find with it would be nickel versus sterling. I mentioned the typical flat D and slightly sharp high notes, but I’m beginning to master those. I’m not used to this flute yet, being used to playing very well-made keyless flutes.
Actually, tonight I just “cured” the false D by very slightly filing the inside of the metal-lined head. I did this first of all because the inside had some metal (tin I believe) flaking a little. The advice given to mewas to file it down very very slightly. I did so, and played the flute again tonight and it sounds so much better. I tried it at home, as they say, and there you go. I’m no expert though, so I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has done that.
lol
not at all (sounding bad)
the money and time needed to make a good flute in the 1840s+ unfortunatley suspended the ability of many makers to construct them of the best cocus
(which was in abundance by now in England, thanks to the islands in the Carribean) and sterling silver.
German Silver (actually it’s white bronze with no real silver) was an alloy amalgam that made it not only more affordable
for instrument makers to construct keys…but were more durable for the musician. The GS keys were stronger,
though they were more brittle and broke rather than bent. But it took a lot to break them.
Too, a weld to such a break was more difficult than for silver.
When polished properly they take on a brilliant gleam that is very striking.
Yours is probably a nice flute, I have little doubt.
But by then the flutes were being made in larger lots, more quickly than the lovely sterling-key flutes that had been produced.
Prowse had some very lovely pieces…often with very orante floral rings and large (almost clunky) crowns.
Nice looking flute! They were always a class act. I like the embouchure cut on your flute, the rounded oval
My question; is there any markings under the C# touch? The flag shaped keys look to be made by A Liddle, he would mark them AL under the key.
You have to understand, nickel silver was the “new miracle metal” back then. Hard, durable and cheaper to buy! Silver must have been out of reach at some point, I have flutes, where the rings are turned wood and clad with silver. That must have been a lot of work to make a ring like that!
Hi Jon, I couldn’t find any markings under the keys, there very faint marks but that’s all; mind you I don’t know exactly where to look… Do you fix old flutes? I wonder do you have nice photos of any old flutes?
Also, I wonder would you know if it’s a bad idea just to fill a crack gently with superglue?
Thanks for all your input. Shane