Hi guys, I’m very curious to know where antique flutes have been lying round since the 1860s or earlier when they were made. I presume that some of the best ones, most expensive ones, have perhaps remained in families through 3 or 4 generations. But others perhaps have interesting stories where they were sold, stolen, and found, or travelled. Does anyone have any idea what happens to flutes between 1860s and their appearance in auctions or on ebay? I’d be very interested to hear anyone’s “flute biographies”, even the minutest details like “I find mine in a friend’s attic”. Thanks! Shane
Hi Shane,
If they could only tell us! I have received flutes that were filled with dirt, form being stored under the house. One of my recent flutes, looked brand new, it was probably up on a shelf in a home in England, locked! They broke the lock to see what was inside. I think most of the flutes that show up on eBay, are estate sales, where they clean the house out and find the flute. Usually there isn’t a note telling of it’s history. I received one flute that did have a note, the flute was a Firth, Hall and Pond one key, the note stated that it was owned by the “first president of the United States” http://www.marshallhall.org/hanson.html The only problem, the flute was made 40 years after his death… 
I have had a ball researching my flute, as it comes from a maker virtually unknown today, yet it is a brilliant piece that I treasure. William Duncan Cubitt (from whom I take my screen name) is the maker in question. My flute was made in 1882 in London. I’ve actually tracked down his descendants, and am happy to share my correspondence with them below.
BTW, my flute was once the property of Jerry Donahue, who played guitar for a time with Fairport Convention. I bought the flute from his brother.
My real name is Alan, and the correspondence begins with a reply to my answer to a query for information on Cubitt on Ancestry.com
\
Hello Alan,
I was absolutely thrilled to receive your e-mail. I knew from the census that William was a violin maker, but had no idea that he made any other instruments. The musical gene must run in the family, as his other son Robert Duncan Cubitt was a vocalist (1881 census Leeds) and my husband’s nan (Robert’s daughter ) was a ballet dancer who danced with the likes of Dame Margot Fontaine. My husband’s brother Rob also does some film and also theatre work, as do his children.
I do not know too much about the family as Bill’s nan is dead now ( I only wish I had been interested in the family tree when she was alive!!). Bill’s mum doesn’t seem to know too much either !! Although she is very interested and my inspiration for the research in the first place. She is always wanting to trace relatives she knows exist but does not know where they live !!
I will send you a link to my Ancestry site where you can view the family tree. I know that the wife of William Duncan was a Leaver as in the Washing powder etc. Lever family. If you click on the find famous family on William’s profile, you will see lots of famous relatives including Judy Garland!!
Also, William Duncan is the Gt.Gt. Grandfather to Tony Blackburn, him being my husband’s second cousin.
I would love you to send me a picture of the flute, if you ever sell it please , please let us have first refusal. Likewise, if you ever come across any other instruments made by the Cubitts for sale, please let me know.
I will try to gather some more info. on the Cubitt company for you, if I can.
I am so glad that you contacted me. I tend to do a bit on each branch of the family tree as and when I can.
Sometimes it seems to come up against a brick wall, I wonder if it is worth doing and then something wonderful like this happens and makes it all worth while.
So thank you so much for contacting me. Keep in touch. By the way, where do you come from and would I know your musical work? Are you in a group?
Also, please would you be able to e-mail a photo of the flute for us all to see. Thank you so much.
With best wishes and eternal thanks
Bill and Sue
xxxx
Greetings, Sue!
I have to make this one quick, as I have an important call to make in about 20 minutes. Here’s a link you should find interesting. It is another ancestry site, and the correspondence covers more about me and why I am so interested in Cubitt. Also, some more facts for you.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=215609.new#new
A musician’s site:
http://www.horn-u-copia.net/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1198685142
This one’s fun. Apparently someone tried to forge Cubitt’s name for money. I’ll have more to say about this one later. When you open it, do a CTRL-F to get a FIND dialog box. Enter CUBITT and it will take you to the Old Bailey case.
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?path=sessionsPapers%2F18840421.xml
The attached picture is not my actual flute, but a dead ringer, so at least you will know what it looks like in very good detail. Again, more on that later.
I’ll be back in touch later today.
Cheers.
Alan
Hello, Sue,
Okay, I can breathe now, so let me send you a few thoughts based on the information I’ve been able to collect to date.
Most of the data I have seen identifies WDC as a dealer who had instruments made to his specifications. That he was known for clarinets in particular seems odd if someone else was making the instruments, unless his “specifications” were based on measurements and/or copies of other instruments that met his standards. I would love to know exactly what his talents were. If you didn’t know, he also was a music publisher. Some of what was published under “W.D. Cubitt, Son & Co.” is still available and you can google it.
I mentioned in one of the links I sent you that Cubitt’s name is not known today, despite the excellence of his instruments (I’ve played many of this vintage, and they are usually out of tune, and the lowest notes are weak or unplayble). I also mentioned that it was rather late in the century for this style of flute. Flutes of this era were especially popular with amateurs as parlour instruments for the ladies. However, my flute was sold with a matching piccolo. Piccolos are not parlour instruments, are never played solo, and rarely played by amateurs. I thus conclude that my flute was built for a professional who had not yet made the transition to the modern classical flute.
On the Old Bailey site I sent you, WDC calls himself a “mechanical instrument maker.” I assume “mechanical” should have been musical, but some clerk took it down incorrectly. Still, the fact that he calls himself a maker rather than a dealer is significant. He also says he only employs three, so it’s a small operation. I’d love to flesh this out and really know what he had done all his life, what he knew about music and instrument making, and why his woodwinds were superior. I am also assuming they are somewhat rare. I don’t know that rarity translates to increased monetary value, but it would be nice to know.
You may be gratified to know that this instrument’s value to me is not as an antique (although I enormously enjoy holding an instrument that originally came from the hands of one who could be a character from Charles Dickens), but as a fine musical instrument that continues to give service with the music it plays best - that of the Irish and Scottish tradition.
Please stay in touch, Sue, and pass on anything you think might be of interest. I’m very glad to have come across your name. Your ancestor is responsible for one of the great pleasures of my life.
Cheers.
Alan
Hi Alan,
Thank you for the fantastic info. on the Cubitts! Bill and I are going into his Mum’s house in the next couple of days to see if we can dig up some more for you!! She will be over the moon with this new info. Thank you so much.
The Cubitt (by the way , pronounced Cube - itt, as I see someone was asking !!) family originated in Norfolk,with William’s generation being the first to be born in the London area. They were, it seems, quite a well - to - do family, with some grand connections. There was a Cubitt within the Royal family who would be related to our Prince of Wales on his wife’s side. I have yet to find their ‘common ancestor’ though.
They are,as you will see on my Tree, related to many prolific Americans, including Presidents and Jimmy Hoffa (eek)!!
By the way, when I said earlier on about Bill’s cousin Tony Blackburn, I didn’t realise that you were from the States so he may not mean too much to you . He is a celebrity over here and has been a radio D.J. on British radio for about 30 yrs. His Grandmother and Bill’s were sisters.
The branch of the family to have American connections is via a Thomas Chappell (1650- 1704) whose father came to America in the 1600’s. Thomas had a son James (1694-1769) who lived in America and whose line leads directly down to Judy Garland and a daughter, Sarah (1715- ?) who married a Thomas Cubitt, who would be WDC’s Gt. Grandfather.
I know that on the WDC’s son Robert is also listed with 2 occupations. One being a vocalist in the1881 census boarding in Leeds,Yorkshire and another as a musical instrument maker in London.
So I believe it was a family concern, almost certainly they were all in the musical industry.
I do remember that Bill’s Nan had a wedding march composed especially for her, (I’m wondering if that was written by her father or grandfather WDC). Bill’s brother I believe, used it in June this year for his wedding. I will see if I can get the piece for you.
I see you are at a very famous medical centre (sorry - it’s e-r for you isn’t it !!). What do you do there? It sounds very exiting. Do you get to meet any famous people? I am a teaching assistant in a local primary school. I don’t get to meet anyone famous!!!
I am 45yrs old, married with 2 stepsons (24 & 20) and one son from my 1st marriage (21) and a son (14) and daughter (7) from my second. We live in a small village called Gwinear in Cornwall, England, just between the towns of Hayle and Camborne. A very rural place, nothing like you are used to, I imagine!!!
Well, it’s nearly midnight here, so I must get some beauty sleep (about 100 yrs will do it!!). I will definitely keep in contact. It’s great to know that someone so far away has such a connection with us. You are now an hononary member of the Cubitt clan!!
Will speak soon, take care
Sue
xxxx
That’s a facinating story Alan.
I’ve often wondered about the history of my flute as it is such an oddity. For those of you that don’t know, it’s an 8-key Firth, Pond & Co. flute in Cocuswood and sterling silver made sometime between 1847 and 1863 in New York. The thing that is so odd about it is that it’s set up for left handed playing and that’s very rare in antique flutes. In most parts of the world it was pretty much forbidden to be a left hander in the mid 1800’s. I so wish that this flute could tell me about it’s history itself.
The only thing I know is that it was made in New York around 150 years ago, it then turned up in England in modern times in the collection of Andrew Kirby who said he bought it at an auction because it was such a strange flute. Sadly I didn’t ask him where the auction was or if he had any other info on it before he passed away, so any knowledge he might have had about it is now regrettably lost. I have a feeling though that he didn’t know very much at all, that’s the feeling I got when I was talking to him about the flute. I do believe that the auction was in England as well, I don’t know if he said it was or if I’m just imagining that. He didn’t play it, it was not restored and I never bought it from him. You can see a picture of it from the time it was in his ownership on Terry McGee’s website. After Andrews passing, the flute was picked up at an auction in the U.K by Colin Hamilton who restored it and eventually sold it to me.
Now, my questions are: Who was the flute made for in the first place? What was the earliest history of the flute? It must have been ordered by a very wealthy amature or a professional who had been playing a 1-key flute left handed up until then, or something like that. It’s hard to obtain a left handed flute these days, imagine what it must have been like back then. Then there’s a 100+ year gap in its history. How did it then end up in England, and what had it been doing up until then?
I don’t think it’s very probable that I will ever get answers to these questions. But it is facinating to play a flute which has survived 2 world wars and has such a mysterious history. I’d like to meet all the people who have owned the thing, and the fellow who made it and talk to them about it. Unfortunately that won’t happen until the invention of a time machine.
Better sit back and wait with a dram of the finest White Oak matured The Glenlivet malt
whisky 
My old 8-key German flute hung over a fireplace as a decoration for generations…not the best place to keep a flute!
The flute doesn’t bear a maker’s mark, but because it was an heirloom in the Harding family I know a little history on it.
The man who purchased the flute new was a Dr. Harding. I don’t know where he lived but I know his descendants live in Louisiana. He was a physician. Not much else is known about him except that he was murdered; thieves attacked him and drove a railway spike into his skull. The story is that he was still able to make his way home before he died.
This was my friend Aaron Harding’s great-great-great-grandfather.
–James
Thanks Alan, that really is a fantastic story. Thanks Henryk and Jon and others too. I’m fascinated to know what these flutes have been doing for about 150 years; were they being played, were they just sitting in the same place; how many owners did they have. If they were around in the second half of the 19th century, who knows who might have played them! Charles Dickens…? Or Charles Stewart Parnell?! Or how many countries they may have travelled through… Thanks for your stories. I know really nothing about my “T. Prowse, London” except what a number of experts on this site and elsewhere have very kindly told me about the maker Thomas Prowse. I bought the flute on ebay, and the seller tells me he bought it at an auction and knew nothing about it. So, I can only speculate that it was in England since that’s where the seller bought it… But for the last 150 years or so? No idea.
Shane
Wow James, that’s quite a story above about your great-great-great grandfather… I knew these flute bios would be interesting!
Actually, Aaron’s great^3-grandfather.
My own ancestors don’t appear to have been very musical.
Though certainly Aaron is a good fella and I’d sure be proud to claim him as a kinsman if I could!
–James
Good taste you have!
Thanks for the delighting story, Alan. Makes me want to own an antique and track down it’s history just for the sake of it.
I don’t own an antique flute myself (save a four-keyed unmarked piccolo which I acquired in an antique shop in Richmond, UK for 20 pounds), but a friend owns a “Th. Prowse Nicholson’s Improved” in full playing state down to C and up into the third octave. It’s a lovely flute with big tone, yet not very huge holes. She acquired the flute ten years ago in St. Chartier (France) from a dealer who restored it, after getting it from an estate sale if I remember correctly. The further history is unknown, unfortunately.
Sorry James, I don’t why I said that it was your great great great grandfather. I got caught up too much in the story! Anyway, thanks, Shane