Hello All,
I´m hoping there might a whistle historian who can help here.
I have a couple of old whistles which come from my great grandfather. They look to be of the same make, one is roughly halfway between F and F# ( a small F whistle) and the other (according to my tuner app ) about a third of the way between Bb and B. They are made of what looks like brass (or perhaps brass-plated copper, if such a thing exists). The F has a sort of a stamped metal "badge" attached a couple of centimetres above the top hole which reads "Perfect Tune", where "Perfect" is stamped at the top and "Tune" underneath. In between these two words is stamped "M & Co." The "badge" wraps all the way around the whistle. The larger whistle has a solder mark on the back, where the badge, presumably, was attached. The blocks of both whistles look like pewter (at best) or lead!! I´d gladly attach a couple of photos but have no idea how to.
Does anyone out there have any idea about where these whistles were made and when? I imagine they date from the late 1800s or early 1900s and were made in England.
Cheers,
Tim
Whistle identity query
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- Mr.Gumby
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Re: Whistle identity query
That's correct. Victorian and a bit after. I thought I had one or two of the M&co ones but can't immediately locate them. I have seen a few. With these whistles it is often hard to tell who made them, it was not uncommon for instrumetns, eg concertinas, at the time to be rebranded and labelled with a trader's name rather than a maker's name. There are a fair few whistles from the period that look identical but are labelled with different badges (or none at all).I imagine they date from the late 1800s or early 1900s and were made in England.
It's not easy to find out much about these, I imagine they were not considered significant enough to document, often they may have been sidelines and part of a wider musical instrument manufacture. Some of the larger musical instrument traders can be traced though (Wallis in England or Mathieu in France, for example)
My brain hurts
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Re: Whistle identity query
Thanks for the info, Mr.Gumby!
Re: Whistle identity query
copenhagen,
I confess, my curiosity is aroused.
1) Is the tube tapered ? Straight ?
2) Is the tube drawn or rolled+soldered ?
3) to post pictures here, the image can be hosted elsewhere (e.g. DropBox, Google Sites, Google Drive, ...). To post the picture here, use the image-link inside the image demarcations (e.g. [img]...[/img]. (See the "Img" button in the message composition page).
trill
I confess, my curiosity is aroused.
1) Is the tube tapered ? Straight ?
2) Is the tube drawn or rolled+soldered ?
3) to post pictures here, the image can be hosted elsewhere (e.g. DropBox, Google Sites, Google Drive, ...). To post the picture here, use the image-link inside the image demarcations (e.g. [img]...[/img]. (See the "Img" button in the message composition page).
trill
- Mr.Gumby
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Re: Whistle identity query
These would be examples of the generic type B and F of the time, the 'perfect tune ' ones I have seen were of this type.
Pitch conventions were different from today's A=440, most (though not all) of these are about a semitone off their indicated keys by today's standards.
Pitch conventions were different from today's A=440, most (though not all) of these are about a semitone off their indicated keys by today's standards.
My brain hurts
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Re: Whistle identity query
Mr. Gumby´s photos resemble my whistles pretty accurately - except mine are not in as good condition. I can send photos to you trill, if you pm me your email address. The other stuff is too long-winded for me I´m afraid:-)