A friend just got a whistle from an eBay auction, and we’re looking for information about it.
It’s like a Clarke original in manufacture - conical, rolled tin, wooden fipple plug. In fact, it’s fairly corroded, but retains some of it’s original black paint and gold trim. There’s a partial emblem that reads “Victor.”
I think I recall some folks here either have them or know of them. Has anyone uncovered any clues about the origin of these whistles?
Thanks!
Jim
A search under the terms “Victor”, “Calura”, “Eagle” and “Pied Piper” should turn up most of the old threads.
They were all pretty much the same, rolled conical whistles with wood plugs. Their hey-day seems to have been pretty much the first half of the Twentieth Century, before the advent of the plastic fipples. MOST of them say “Made in Germany” At least some post-date WWII, since the Pied Piper whistles carry the mark “Made in the US Occupied Zone of Western Germany”. I, for one, don’t buy into the idea that they were made by some German subsidiary of Clarke, though I have no proof either way. I just think that they represented a specific type of which the Clarke and Cooperman (and Shaw?) are the only survivors.
Looking much like the Clarke Originals, I have always assumed that they once played the same as well. They don’t now, but I suspect that that is more of an artifact of age, drying and shrinkage of the wooden plugs, and their generally battered condition.
What key is your friend’s Victor? My own is a C, and my suspicion, based on the almost identical markings, is that they all came from a single company and that the ‘name’ is specfic to the key or to certain keys.
My Victor is also a C. And it sounds like it plays nearly as well as yours, Chuck 
(Truth be told, it is not the worst playing C whistle that I have).
Erik
Have you ever thought of tweakng yours? My Victor C is actually in better overall shape than the others I have of the type. Not too many dents and the paint is good+. I’ve thought about pulling the fipple plug and carving a new one, either of wood or some malleable plastic. I really think that with some minor work it could be a pretty good whistle. After all, it really doeesn’t have any significant antique value.
If any of the whistle makers/tweakers on the board would like to ring in on this idea and how harebrained it really is, I’d love to hear their comments
I had considered tweaking it, but just decided that I’ll keep it as it is… you know, it doesn’t have much historical value now, but just wait 85 years, this could be my kid’s inheritence 
(I think this about every whistle I buy).
In other words, you’re rationalizing the spending of your child’s inheritance?
Shhhh.