R & R Wood Types

[libraryman]

Lately there have been a number of Rudall and Rose flutes put up for sale. One thing I have noticed is that they all have been made of cocus. I gather all R & R's known to exist have been catalogued, but that this catalogue is not available online. Anyway, I was just curious as to roughly what percentage were made of cocus and what percentage of such other woods as boxwood and blackwood. Anybody have any idea?

[LorenzoFlute]

Never seen one in blackwood, boxwood is rare...

[Steampacket]

My 1892 R&C is cocus, and it seems that cocus was the wood of choice in England and France during the 19th century for flutes at least. England still had it's empire and had access to cheap cocus from the West Indies. It seems like the Rudalls that are documented are often made of cocus, as are the Rudalls described in completed auction catalogues. Occasionally they are made of boxwood. I think as cocus was a good wood for flutes, and readily attainable, that's why it was used. Good English boxwood was prehaps harder to obtain and isn't boxwood prone to warping? Don't think I've seen a blackwood Rudall either.

[kkrell]

Old Rudall catalogs show the 8-key concert flutes available in cocus, blackwood, or ebonite.

Here's one page:
http://www.oldflutes.com/catalogs/RC/rc8.html

[RudallRose]

at that stage of the game, Kevin, the rudall 8keys were the cylindrical bores and there were not many.

Boxwood was not rare, but not as common as cocus.

Cocuswood (or cocoa as they originally called it) was of the Jamaican variety (so says Rockstro) and was in abundance for those able to acquire it via the crown.

Boxwood was considered the inferior of the wood. Since so fewer were made, today's are worth more simply from the aspect of relative rarity.

The first Rudalls were boxwood, not uncommon for 1821-ish since most flutes were this.
Pretty much only Monzani and Clementi were using cocus.

There is a very early Rudall/Rose made of ebony. (now owned by a collector in Spain.....but it had been in my collection).
it's the only one i've seen in that wood.

I have not seen a blackwood Rudall of any type in the 8key format, though the catalogue Kevin shows does in fact offer them. <shrug>


The flutes were made in batches and the catalogue (mine, thanks......i took the site off-line a few years ago b/c of photo thieves and other fraudsters) reflects these bunches.

By way of variety, i have boxwood Rudalls in the various serial numbers as high as 5000+.

Rings were as varied, too, from silver to bone to ivory. Even gold, though extremely rare.

The quality of the cocus also varied. Early cocus was less red, darker and the grain less figured.
The later ones (ie, higher serial numbers) were so red as to be confused with rosewood.

I've often wondered whether the difference was the relative youth of the trees being consumed for use, redder as they were younger. But the woodworkers here would know better than I.

hope that answers some of your questions, libraryman.

[Jon C.]

I have seen a couple made from Ebony, but very rare, and disastrous...

[libraryman]

Thanks for the very informative and authoritative replies. I knew that Dave had compiled a catalogue, but did not know photo thieves and other undesirables had spoiled things for those of us who would have like to have browsed it. Shame. Anyway, I gather that it is not surprising that all the Rudalls up for sale recently have been made of cocus even if there are a decent number of boxwood ones out there.

[jim stone]

Occasionally I've seen them advertised as being made of rosewood, but I think it must be cocus, misidentified.

[jemtheflute]

Occasionally I've seen them advertised as being made of rosewood, but I think it must be cocus, misidentified.

More than "occasionally". It happens constantly and commonly. We've discussed the rosewood/cocus thing before/elsewhere. For the purposes of this thread it is insignificant. If you see an antique flute described as "rosewood", read it as "cocus", which 99% of the time it will be.

It may be slightly ironic that antiques dealers and non-flute-specialists see cocus as a rosewood (when it looks like one but botanically is not one) but distinguish it from blackwood/grenadilla which they don't view as a rosewood when it is one........ (though they also not uncommonly describe grenadilla as "ebony", which it ain't).