just seen a most unusual ivory flute by Keith Prowse & co. on ebay. It will be interesting to see how much it goes for.
that is a beautiful flute! It will go for boo-koo buck though…
Eilam, maybe you should get it, I’m sure your wife won’t mind… 
Jon
I believe that this is the ivory Keith Prowse I saw sold on 2nd April for £260 + premium .Nobody wanted it .The big buyers were there .There were better things to be had .
If so, they either weren’t satisfied with it and offered it at a low price, or are hoping it will pull in more than that. Right now, at the current bid, they’d be losing money.
Kevin Krell
That’s nothing, you want this baby: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3715546170&category=10183&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBWA%3AIT&rd=1
Glass flute by Claude Laurent. Opening bid of $19,700. No takers yet for some reason.
how about $19,700 as a reason
There was a bid a while back now withdrawn , it seems .The bidder perhaps got his noughts mixed up. Or perhaps the management of the institution he had escaped from caught him at the computer .
<Or perhaps the management of the institution he had escaped from caught him at the <computer
Andrew, he’s my buddy and cell mate. in between our doses of dibby-dabby, we go and bid on flutes, of course we expect a file or a hacksaw blade in the bore, that’s the reason we don’t bid on harmonicas.
I noticed they are not giving any close-up pictures of the crack in the headjoint. The closeup of the “ivory” look a lot like bone…
I think we could still fit a hack saw blade in it though… 
Jon
That’s ivory, not bone.
Yes , but the cracks referred to are air !
The ivory flute is lovely, but unless my eyes decieve me, there is a large, open crack that goes through the blowing edge of the embouchure hole. It also looks like Photoshop or the equivalent was used to try to “cover up” part of the crack.
I would recommend any potential bidder to contact the seller and try to get much clearer photos of the headjoint and embouchure before committing a bid.
–James
I seem to remember big cracks at the back of the head ,or I might have bid ,the price being so low .
One should always enquire about cracks before bidding .For some strange reason some vendors are a bit shy when it comes to detailing
such faults !.There was an F. Fentum ivory flute as well which fetched a bit more .No doubt we shall be seeing that soon !
Eeew. I just keep thinking about the poor elephants who contributed to it.
A little too organic for me, thanks!
Cathy,
I’m pretty sure a lot of the ivory floating around England in the 1700s and 1800s came from whales not elephants it that makes you feel any better…
Eric
I think you have just opened up a fascinating area for biological research , Jayhawk. I for one would love to hear more about these whales you refer to .Elephants we all know about .Flutes made from narwhale tusks would make good flutes if only one knew how to bore them !
Whales have tusks?
I don’t know about narwhal tusks – aren’t they spiralled? Might be hard to get a good embouchure on.
Erm, I meant weren’t they spiralled? I think narwhals are exinct?