Rudall on ebay

[Juan Pablo Plata]

Check this item:

220578800505

[nohoval_turrets]

Soooooo pretty! Mind you the pictures don't really cover the whole instrument.

[benhall.1]

Anybody care to link?

[jemtheflute]

Anybody care to link?

Lazy b****r! Like it's hard to go on eBay and copy and paste the number the OP gave into the search bar, or just search on "Rudall Carte"........

Yur 'tis, though.

Agreed the pics are rather deficient. This one is just 5 earlier than the #7007 Jon C has been on about of late Should be a goodie!

Judging from the provenance story, this will be a new one for David Migoya's Catalogue.

2010 has been a good year for Rudalls so far!

[Steampacket]

Another nice Rudall - the cracked barrel is easily fixed. Eight days to go - exciting.

Here's a younger one, no. 7103, that went for 1800 sterling in September 2009:

Good English rosewood flute by Rudall Carte & Co circa 1870 stamped Rudall Carte & Co 23 Berners Street Oxford Street London no. 7103 with eight nickel keys on wooden blocks. Gardiner Houlgate:Lot 148 - .Estimate: 800-1000 – Sold for 1800 – 25th September 2009

[guitargirl]

Hello sorry to invade your private forum, I found your thread whilst searching on the internet for some more information on the flute im selling on e bay. Im the girl with the Rudall Carte. I have just posted some better pictures and indicated where the crack is. But I found this flute in my fathers caravan/park home type thing when I cleared up after he died 10 years ago. He definitely never played flute so I have no idea how he came about having it but he collected a lot of old bits and bobs. I haven't been able to get much info on the model so you guys seem like experts and any more information on it would be much appreciated if you have any so I can add it to the listing. I hope you don't mind my intrusion.
lou

[LorenzoFlute]

I wish my father or grandfather collected Rudall & Carte flutes...

[treeshark]

and very nice the new pictures are, they'll be fighting over this one all in the last few seconds no doubt... might even have a bid myself.

[Steampacket]

Guitargirl/Lou

Don't get ripped off - the flute looks to be a very good example . The cracked barrel isn't a problem, easily fixed by a good craftsman/flutemaker. It's good that you have the flute case, do you also have the little grease pot? The flute you have is very desirable for Irish trad. flute players, collectors, and dealers who want to make a profit, and there will probably be a bidding frenzy during the last few minutes before the auction closes. Price? hard to pinpoint, depends on who is anxious to get the flute, but 2800-3300 GBP, maybe more

[jemtheflute]

Hi Guitargirl/Lou, and welcome here. I want to second Steampacket's comments, and also to say this isn't a "private" forum - anyone can join and contribute and very welcome (within the Board rules, of course), as you have, and indeed make use of the archive of back material as a resource. I think that if you look back at threads about sales of Rudall Carte and Rudall & Rose flutes for even just the last 3-6 months, you will pick up a good deal of useful knowledge. Also search eBay (if you haven't already) for ended items with those key-words to look at prices achieved by recent sales.
Best of luck with it! We'll be watching with interest.

[benhall.1]

Guitargirl/Lou

Don't get ripped off - the flute looks to be a very good example . The cracked barrel isn't a problem, easily fixed by a good craftsman/flutemaker. It's good that you have the flute case, do you also have the little grease pot? The flute you have is very desirable for Irish trad. flute players, collectors, and dealers who want to make a profit, and there will probably be a bidding frenzy during the last few minutes before the auction closes. Price? hard to pinpoint, depends on who is anxious to get the flute, but 2800-3300 GBP, maybe more

I'm not bidding. And I don't know anything. But ... it doesn't look the most desirable to me. Barrel crack, as ST says, not a problem (so I believe), but it's a fairly 'ordinary' looking flute of this type - are those keys GS? What about the pitch? Sounding lengths and some other measurements would be interesting - Jem knows which ones. My bet is final price = £2,200. I hope you do better than that, though, Guitargirl.

[s1m0n]

I have just posted some better pictures and indicated where the crack is.

It appears to be a quality flute, which is almost certain to fetch a sum in the modest four figures, sterling. Unless there's a hidden defect, you are likely to find a fairly direct correlation between the quality of the images and the price. The new images are good enough to get you in the game, but it may well prove worth your while to improve them further, or at a minimum look for a host which will allow you to post the largest image size you can. Unless there's something else I should click, 500 x 375 pixels is the highest resolution I can see via your listing. That's tiny. If your camera gave you larger images (it's hard to imagine that it didn't, unless it's a decade or more old), then posting the full files someplace and including links is worth the 20 minutes it'd take you to do it.

I've found imageshack to be close to the minimum in hassle (no need to register, etc) but plenty of others will do similar things.

[jemtheflute]

@Ben. Yes, the keys/fittings are GS, as on most of the flutes of this era. I don't think that is much of a minus point, though for some the cosmetic aspect would reduce the theoretical value a little. Playing-wise, it has no significance. I think that, with its original case and being in pretty good nick, provided the pitch issue has a favourable answer, it is very desirable.

Yes, knowing the significant dimensions, preferably in mm would be helpful (Lou? - worth putting these on your eBay listing...):
1) overall length of assembled flute, tuning slide closed;
2) sounding length (centre of embouchure to level with far, open end of assembled flute, tuning slide closed);
3) "C#-Eb" length (centre of top open tone-hole [nearest to embouchure] to centre of Eb key-cup [the shortest one for the R hand little finger, opening the highest hole on the foot joint] with that turned into same line as the open holes, flute assembled);
4) distance from the centre of the embouchure to the centres of the 1st and 3rd tone-holes (flute assembled, slide closed, counting from the top).
5) the lengths in mm of the individual body joints - end to end on those with rings at each end/sockets, shoulder to shoulder or shoulder to end on those with one or more tenons (i.e. ignore the tenon - just measure to the edge of the turned step down [shoulder] from full external diameter to tenon) and of the head from outside ring to ring (ignore crown cap and slide) and the barrel ditto from outside ring to outside ring (ignore slide).

The above info will help to give some idea of the probable design-intended core tuning/playing pitch. In this period that could be High Pitch, and if the flute is clearly HP that does reduce its desirability, but if it is not HP it should have better intonation for playing at 440 than many of the earlier flutes.

Re: s1m0n's photo comments, I have always been able to post adequate pics to eBay, but his tips may make sense. I would also advise you to try to take your shots in diffuse natural daylight if possible - outdoors on a cloudy day is best, and from a bit closer in. I do all mine (e.g. see my photo albums on Facebook) on a phone cam, transfer them to my computer, edit them (crop, compress etc.) in Microsoft Office Picture Editor and then upload them... Photobucket, Facebook, wherever.

[guitargirl]

hello everyone thanks for your incredible response. I am overwhelmed. I am not at home til' wednesday but will certainly put some meausrements on after that before the end of auction.

The flute definitely plays well as I heard the guys in Hobgoblin music play it. Sounded very beautiful ! Anyone know the definite age of the flute? Im interested to know?


I have no grease pot im afraid!

anyway thanks so much for your interest. Im so excited now...
louxxxxx

[jemtheflute]

Lou, I think the info on Jon Cornia's FB photo of RC&Co. #7007, just 5 flutes later and very similar looking to your flute, will give you a very fair idea! Jon's source of information is impeccable, and I wouldn't mind betting your flute was taken into stock from whoever made it for RC&Co. in the summer of 1888! It should be possible to discover the equivalent info for yours, including probably the maker's name. (Robert Bigio will on request check up on serial numbers in the extant stock books that he holds, in return for a charitable donation, usually. He can be contacted through his website or here on C&F.)