Crack in the barrel and in at least 1 of the blocks. I’m not sure what to make of that lower joint. Looks as if it IS stamped “Wylde”, with post-mounted keys, but not sure if it’s from another flute, or the blocks broke off and post-mounting was the fix. The posts look like an addition, not as cleanly installed as an original.
That Wylde looks totally bogus to me. Married sections, keys that don’t match.
How do you know how – or even “if”-- the third section is marked? I couldn’t tell.
The third section is stamped. You can see the letters Wy and now I see lon faintly in the last photo with all the sections together if you use the magnify option
The barrel looks very non-wylde. I would suspect the entire HJ.
It may be stamped but the third section is NOT part of the original flute… unless of course it had the blocks removed and pin mounts as a later repair. Never seen anything like it. Seems anachronistic.
It is certainly very suspicious. I agree the barrel and the lower body don’t look right, though with the latter that is really just the keys which look, as others have said, to be a repair with a hodge-podge of whatever was available - the stamp looks authentic enough and the tone-holes look English, not German. The G# key also looks to be a possible substitute as it has a much shallower cup than the extant originals and the touch doesn’t quite look right to me. I think the head and certainly the crown and stopper finial look adequately Wylde. Also, given the early dates for the address (1832-8), I would not expect GS fittings - sterling would be much more likely before the 1850s, though of course one cannot be sure of key materials from pictures. I have seen sterling stickified with old linseed oil which looked yellowy like that, like GS, but cleaned up to be obviously silver, so I wouldn’t be totally confident to state that the clearly original keys were GS.
Am surprised the R & R does not seem to be getting a lot of interest. Is the just a sign of how much the antique flute market has fallen or is that particular flute just not in the “most desirable” category. Just curious.
“Erratic” seems to be the right word alright because I would have thought the asking price was not way out of line. But I don’t have your experience. BTW, the clips you have posted on the German flutes have been great. Particularly the one of the “especially good one” I saw yesterday. Outstanding playing and great tone. Well done Jem.
Yes (sigh) The market appears almost random. If anyone has a reasonable offer for my R+R, please let me know…It is a fantastic instrument, and would certainly be nice were it to go to a flute-friendly home.
Best - Ed
??? It was a genuine RC&Co. (just a typo in the listing), though in rather unusually bright cocus! Very pretty, but not conical! It’s a Carte 1867 System (cylindrical/Böhm head & body) and almost certainly High Pitch. Sold now off eBay, so actual price unknown, but if it is actually CP and the price was of the order shown on eBay, someone may have picked up a bargain. Nice it had its screw-driver/swab rod intact and present!
Yes - am in no doubt -
From the full listing text:
A FLUTE BY RUDALL & CARTE. STAMPED WITH CROWN OVER RUDALL CARTE & CO 23 BERNER
STREET,OXFORD STREET LONDON 1169 1867 PATENT. ALSO MARKED RUDALL CARTE IN ANOTHER PLACE
ON THE FLUTE
I’ve downloaded and zoomed in on the main stamp on one of the photos (original linked 2nd below) and it looks good to me - and the case and swab/screw-driver and pretty much everything else about it look distinctively authentic RC&Co. Besides, no-one else made 1867 systems. I’ve seen a couple of near copies (but with clearly visible differences) by Collard, nowt else remotely similar.
??? 
It was a genuine RC&Co. (just a typo in the listing), though in rather unusually bright cocus! Very pretty, but not conical! It’s a Carte 1867 System (cylindrical/Böhm head & body) and almost certainly High Pitch. Sold now off eBay, so actual price unknown, but if it is actually CP and the price was of the order shown on eBay, someone may have picked up a bargain. Nice it had its screw-driver/swab rod intact and present!
