C. Gerock London, boxwood & ivory one-key flute

[dubrosa22]

This past Sunday I was the lucky sole bidder on a Gerock boxwood, ivory rings and silver one-key flute at a Sydney auction house.



A few days prior to the auction I inspected the Gerock in person in Wollahra. I was surprised to find it played with a good sweet tone and quite loudly despite the tenon thread windings being horribly bunched up and near disintegration, the cork placed very well back and a dusty bore.

Overall condition considering its age was excellent. No visible cracks, repairs or modifications. Pitch was not accurately obtainable due to the upper tenon joint pulled out more than 20mm because of bunched tenon thread. Its overall length was approx. 600mm like most one-key Gerocks from the 79 Cornhill period (1826-1837 according to Lasocki) I could locate data for online.

The auction manager said it was most likely a one owner item since the 'prominent political family' who were auctioning it and many other contemporary pieces had been in Australia since colonial occupation but this was hardly proven just speculation.

He was mightily shocked when I played a rough D scale. He said two potential bidders had previously inspected it and declared it unplayable. Hmmm...

I decided it was well worth a punt. These flutes hardly ever turn up in Australia. And ivory restrictions make them hard to import. I've been tempted.
And so since the reserve was low, around £125, and no one else ended up bidding for it, my first traverso was shamefully cheap!

Once collecting it the next day and after removing some extra (crusty) thread from the tenons and adding cork grease I managed to assemble the Gerock properly and get some basic measurements:
Overall length = 605mm
Sounding length = 532mm
After warming it briefly with my hands the pitch was between A440 and 444 in my 21°C music room.
The cork is set quite far back (25mm+) but it plays octaves very much in tune so I'll leave it for now.

Headjoint stamped:
[Unicorn head]
C.GEROCK
79
CORNHILL
LONDON

All other joints stamped:
C.GEROCK
LONDON





Obviously it needs appropriate gentle cleansing inside and out. The bore is very dirty and dry. And needs to be played in gently and slowly. 5 minutes a day for few weeks tops.
From what I have played of it is quite lively! It has that thrum in the hands and fingers and a strong tone I wasn't expecting. The fork fingerings are particularly nice to have (G# and Fnat).

The Eb key has proved to be immensely tarnished silver. Amazingly its decrepit skin of leather or felt is still sealing the tonehole well enough along with the strongish flat spring.

The ivory is quite yellowed, and quite blackened under the key. I understand that ivory quite readily stains so I gather the silver key's tarnishing has badly stained it?

Any suggestions for cleaning the ivory are very much welcome. Seems little more than gentle polishing with the finest grade buff is recommended. I have Vulpex spirit soap and white spirits for the dirtiest regions of the exterior (again the footjoint because of the tarning silver key), but I need to do more research before applying anything to this flute. So far it's only had a wipe down with a mildly dampened cloth and thin wipe of sweet almond oil.

Any suggestions for materials to 'pad' the key with?
Leather? Cork? Felt? Other?

The Gerock is a nice, mechanically simple project after a few 'modern' Rudall flutes and various clarinets, but dealing with near-200 year old boxwood and ivory is daunting!

Vaughan

PS
Photo album here:
http://s1088.photobucket.com/user/dubro ... 20Traverso

[LewisC]

What a find, congrats. I would not use anything even slightly abrasive on the ivory or wood, maybe a bit of very light detergent with soft cloth. The patina and excellent condition of the surface must be preserved.
L

[Mr.Gumby]

Any suggestions for materials to 'pad' the key with?
Leather? Cork? Felt? Other?

Closed cell foam (cut from, for example, sleeping mats) does a good job on regulator keys for the uilleann pipes. Not sure how it reacts to a mouth blown instrument but it's worth a try.

[Uni Flute]

First of all, congratulations on a great find!

As for repadding the key, soft, thin leather with the finished surface facing the tonehole works a treat. I mention thin leather because it can be built up in layers-giving you the opportunity to get the correct pad thickness to allow the spade key to sit evenly over the tone hole recess.

As Mr. Gumby mentioned, cell foam does this job well on closed standing keys such as the Eb, but you may prefer leather for that authentic look.

[dubrosa22]

Thank you for the suggestions. I think I'll go for thin leather on the Eb key then, for authenticity.

My intention in regards to cleaning this flute is really just to remove the yucky black dirt in the bore and the thick tarnishing deposits on the footjoint from the silver key. I certainly do not want to change the finish or aged patina of the instrument.

The bore is simply being played in slowly and silk swabbed as normal. Nothing else necessary.

For the exterior I have been recommended 1 part Vulpex spirit soap solution with 20 parts white spirits for a gentle, slow removal of the black grime. This is a museum conservation solution. I will test a small section tonight after I remove the silver key and give it a light polish, oil and clean.

The ivory I will just lightly polish with a damp cloth as suggested. I can definitely see now strong signs of wearing. Many of the turned decorative grooves on the ivory rings and endcap are worn away almost flush. Perhaps this is from a long lifetime of normal handling but most likely from overzealous cleaning and polishing sometime in the past. I'll avoid making the same mistake again.

Last night I removed the ancient endstopper cork (glued in) and the old tenon thread windings. Shellac or some other glue was used to lap the first layer of windings but it all unwound off happily into a crusty pile.

Judging by the now nude tenon sockets they are all original (often older lower pitched joints can be found recently turned down shorter to bring the pitch up to 440). They all have the same lathed corrugated grooves and wood aging.

It's a lovely instrument!

Vaughan

[dubrosa22]

Over the weekend I finished cleaning, repadding, new cork and tenon thread winding the C. Gerock one-key
I think it's looking a good deal less dirty (especially the footjoint and its key) and playing better with a properly sealing Eb key.

I don't think I went overboard with the cleaning - simply removing surface grime and dirt on the exterior with a 1/20 part Vulpex/white spirits solution. This is a British Museum developed stable alkaline liquid soap with extremely low residue deposits http://www.picreator.co.uk/articles/5_v ... d_soap.htm. It made an amazing difference to the footjoint with was covered in thick, black silver tarnish. The flute's patina and original finish has not been altered at all.

The tenon sockets were obviously previously painted with shellac (the lower windings were stuck down quite fast) and the tenons and the edges of the flute body near the sockets are blackened by this treatment. Vulpex couldn't possibly remove the shellac staining. I choose a simple brown thread like the stuff previously used rather than something bright like red or green.

The exterior is now being gently rubbed down daily with sweet almond oil.

The bore has not been cleaned with Vulpex and/or white spirits but simply played-in slowly and swabbed afterwards with a silk handkerchief and a soft cloth lightly infused with sweet almond oil. The black has stopped staining the cloth and it is slowly polishing the bore gently.





Cleaning and polishing the silver Eb key and brass flat-spring I was very conscious that I didn't want it to look like a brand new replacement. So I purposely left the chunkier tarnish deposits on the key arm and keycup and the brass spring and the underside of the key only got a clean and light polish leaving an authentic patina of age.

The Eb key was padded with a now blackened thin leather 'pad' (see photo above). It was a few layers thicker in the middle so it protruded slightly into the tonehole.
I mimicked this by unpicking and flattening a new brown leather saxophone octave pad and using a thin layer of the felt inside it to build a similar protrusion for the tonehole. So far it works really well. The low D is so much stronger now it's sealing properly.

I'm still playing it in gently, but the longer I live with this flute the better it gets!

Vaughan