Anyone seen anything like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2530596634&category=624
I’ve never seen a mouthpiece on a whistle like this, I guess you stick it in your mouth like a straw? The loop on the bottom looks like a thumbrest, but the one on the top? Maybe for a string around the neck?
How old do you figure it is?
Looks pretty cool though…
PC
“Flageolet”, maybe? 
It does look cool.
However, judging by the fact that the toneholes appear equal sized and evenly spaced, I doubt it’s in tune.
(And I’ve no notion how one would go about tweaking such a thing.)
I wouldn’t tweak it. It’s a collectible, possibly antique. Besides, playing it as is would offer a demonstration in Unjust Intonation. 
It’s a French Flageolet. I have one, which I bought from another listmember. As Jerry points out, the intonation is horrible, however, the sound is unlike any whistle. It’s extremely tinny. There’s a piece missing, which is essentially a sharping lever. I have no idea why it works, but a cork covers half the window, thereby sharping the note half a tone.
I’m not sure how old it is – I would guess around turn of the century, but it’s a blind guess.
I wouldn’t tweak it either. But it’s discouraging, not to mention humbling, to be confronted with a whistle that I wouldn’t know how to tweak. Makes you realize how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. Sigh.
I have what is essentially the same item, but in an early (1930’s/40’s? earlier?) kind of plastic, and might have a wider bore. Mine has that same finned mouthpiece, which is removable, and the same chamber between the fins and the fipple blade. Musically, it’s a little ‘flat’ across the board, but consistently so. When I first got it, also from an E-Bay auction, I couldn’t figure out why it sounded so bad–until I looked inside and saw actual cobwebs!! After a little soap and water, it got as good as it’s gonna get. If someone can tell me how to put a digital photo on the message board (without a website to ‘URL’ it from), let me know, and I will post a shot of it. It is neat looking in an ‘early industrial’ kind of way.
(PS: I predict a bidding frenzy and a final price of $50.00 US plus for the one up for auction at this time, though I will not be among the bidders.)
Tom D.
Tom…there are several photo hosting sites that will let you upload digital photos into on-line “albums,” and most of them will allow remote linking. I use both Snapfish and Imagestation, and I know there are others as well. They’re free, and they’ll talk you through the upload process. Once the photo’s’ on-line, you can use the “IMG” button here to link to it (right click on the image to get its URL).
Redwolf
The sound absolutely doesn’t need to be tweaked. As for the intonation, I’ve tried partially covering some of the holes, which will bring some notes into tune, but it would also require reaming out others, which I’m not willint to do. Yet.
Tom, I wouldn’t call 50 dollars for this a feeding frenzy. It’s really a cool instrument, very old and of historical value. I think I paid 35 and feel like it could be worth twice that. If it goes to 200, THAT would be a feeding frenzy.
Bugger, and I had dreamed, nobody from the board would notice. 
Claus aka musical_priest
The picture looks more magical than musical - but that’s no bad thing. Some whistles are meant to be played, others collected.
One of the whistles I’m proudest to own is an antique silver one in B natural, with the mouthpeice on one side. With the key its in it’s no use in sessions, but it just looks good and gives me pleasure simply from owning it.
Ever what it is, and ever how it’s tuned, that is an interesting flageol.
You’ve got any pictures you can post, Tim? Sounds pretty cool, and pretty.
PC
Tut, tut, Jerry! To say such revealing things to those of us who, with upturned eyes, look upon you as a tweaker non pareil. For my part, I am crushed.
Which half of the window does the cork cover? Top or bottom, left or right? All it does is literally cover part of the window? 
EDIT: I came home and looked, and much of the info I had written is incorrect. The cork FLATTENS the note rather than sharping it (too many years of the lever harp). I’ve corrected a couple other things, but that’s the biggie.
If you’re looking at it from playing position, it covers the left 2/3-3/4 of the window. I had assumed it was a mute, but while it mutes the sound some (it’s very quiet to begin with), and it’s pretty close to a half step for each note.
No idea how it works (Thomas Hastay, BrewerPaul, Mike Burke, got any ideas?), probably some sort of turbulence effect; the windway is EXTREMELY narrow top to bottom. It’s actuated by the left thumb, with heavy wire that’s soldered to the bottom, twists around, and threads up through the doohickey shown in one of the pics near the window.
A quick search on Google brought up this link. http://www.gs.kunitachi.ac.jp/collectiondb/e_catrn16.html Even though it isn’t the same whistle in the pix, it does refer to CH.Mathieu, c.1900 at number 1599 and it refers to Paris France. This page also has some cool pictures of some very interesting old flutes and other instruments Just click on the little squares under the samples column.
Cheers,
Kathy 
This instrument is probably an English Flageolet, as was mentioned. This type of instrument was sold as a cheap toy(poor design).
The upper part starts with a “beak” mouthpiece leading to a wind chamber,like a crumhorn. The fipple plug with windway is at the bottom of this wind chamber cavity. The cavity was originaly filled with a sponge to soak up spit but this practice fell out of favor. Using a wind chamber allows a narrow windway and gives “backpressure” easing fatigue.
Here are some fine examples of this design type by Bainbridge.
Just wondering if any of you have ever played one of the “Flageolet” types in my link(previous post)? If so, what did you think of it? if not, what is your opinion on wind-chambers with “spit sponges”?
Thomas Hastay.
For an new one, of the latest design and materials, see the Alba web site
at
http://www.albawhistles.com/whistles/shopflag.htm