The one that ALMOST got away!
A few weeks ago in October this cocuswood & sterling silver Rudall Carte & Co. Radcliff’s Model piccolo came up at auction the very same day the C. Gerock one-key traverso ( https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/c-gerock-london-boxwood-ivory-one-key-flute/95740/1 ) was being auctioned across town.
As I wrote down my absentee bids for each of them I banked a much larger sum on the Gerock due to its greater rarity here in Australia and appeal to my performer sensibilities. But when I lost the Radcliff piccolo by one bid it certainly stung! Why didn’t I bid more???
Luckily last week it came up for sale on that internet auction website so I quickly wrote to the seller and gave him a decent profit on his investment (and without the fees) and I still got a good deal 
It is High Pitch (like my Radcliff’s Model flute and my ebonite 1867 Patent… Australia is awash with bloody HPs!), but I’m a collector and amateur blower so I can settle on using other instrument for playing with folks.
Robert Bigio kindly tells me that #7578 was made by a chap called Atkins in June 1926. And apparently that day he also finished making a ‘twin’ picc bearing the subsequent serial number and was sold to the same Melbourne music retailer mine was… hmm, I wonder where the twin could be?
Original neat little case and possibly its original brass-like alloy metal cleaning rod?
The picc is in superb condition with only one flaw - a very small hairline crack in the head-joint from the receiver up to about halfway to the embouchure (too hard to photograph). Luckily this crack isn’t destined to go through the embouchure at all, but it’s still worrying. The bore is very clean and highly polished - no imperfections.
All keys, posts and springs are in great condition. The end-stopper, cap and screw are perfect. The body is dry and dirty but a quick denuding and it’ll be cleaned and oiled. The pads were leaking (could only play down to G) so I’ll probably just refresh them all.
I have 2 x Rudall Carte Boehm flute restorations and an Albert system clarinet restoration to finish before I can afford to give this little fella my full attention, so for now it has been cleaned and it’ll ready to be repadded and polished in the not-too-distant future hopefully. Not sure what I’ll do about the head-joint crack yet…
Vaughan
