A consignment of old flutes

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Terry McGee
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A consignment of old flutes

Post by Terry McGee »

Hi all

Some months back a chap in Melbourne sent me a pile of old flutes that he had accumulated over a period. I mentioned it here back then, under the heading of it's been "one of those days". Perhaps a bit strangely, all the flutes had all their keys pulled off and secured with packaging tape. It took us about 4 hours to unravel. The flutes are now all pulled apart, secured in separate zip-lock bags with any loose parts (keys etc) in a small zip-lock bag with the relevant flute. Here's what we found at the time:

8 key English flute by J Wallis, very dark stained cocus, decorative turned rings, lip plate, finger hole discs, big crack through head, 1 broken key (pad end there, but touch end missing).
8 key German flute, no name, at least one broken key.
8 key William Henry Potter flute in boxwood, 2 broken keys. Pewter plug "valves", rather than pads.
8 key German flute, no name, needs padding, 1 missing ring, ebony.
4 key D'Almaine & Co in D, short foot. Needs padding, 2 missing rings, missing cap.
4 key Band Flute in F by Gisborne, needs padding.
1 key flute in F in boxwood by T. Croger. No stopper. Key needs padding.
1 piece fife in C at 455 Hz? French, I believe. Dark brown wood.
1 key piccolo in D, black wood or ebony.

The chap is in old-age care and has no need or plans for the instruments. He had hoped that I might be keen to buy them from him, but I have a cupboard full of similar instruments I need to deal with first! He is pretty short on money and would like to realise whatever he can from them as soon as possible. He doesn't have any technical knowledge about flutes, but I've undertaken to circulate this list and answer any questions arising. If someone wants to buy one or more of them, I'm sure we can find a way to get the money to him. As you can see from the description, all of them need some work to get going. I'm happy to take a closer look at any of them and advise.

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you know of who might be interested in any of the above. I'm going to be away for four days starting tomorrow morning, so don't be surprised if you don't get an immediate answer. Best contact via here or via terry@mcgee-flutes.com
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Casey Burns
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Re: A consignment of old flutes

Post by Casey Burns »

Email sent! I might be interested in the Potter and the Wallis.

Casey
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tompipes
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Re: A consignment of old flutes

Post by tompipes »

I had a Thomas Croger 8 key flute for years. Not a bad player too. No idea who really made it but a kind of "nach Metzler" flute.

I've never seen another D one but I saw 1 other F flute a year or 2 ago. Good flutes.

Tommy
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