Description

Single-keyed boxwood flute – Anonymous

This flute appears to be an English creation from around 1810. This is the wonderfully no-frills, low-cost model, with no luxury features like ivory rings. Instead, it has a single, modest brass key. It bears no maker’s stamp – a sign that it was crafted for the everyday player or made by someone who preferred anonymity.

It has clearly been loved – or at least handled with a great deal of enthusiasm. It even displays the marks of a flute that met the floor on more than one occasion. A previous owner also seems to have performed some rather aggressive DIY surgery on the key pad, leaving behind a permanent souvenir!

There is quite long repaired crack on the player’s side of the head joint, as well as another repaired hairline crack at the socket of the right-hand joint.

It miraculously plays nicely and in tune at a=440 Hz making it absolutely perfect for “house music” or better still a tavern. The enlarged second and fourth fingerholes are a dead giveaway that it was maybe crafted for maximum volume – ideal for cutting through the noise of an 1810 pub?

If this flute could speak, its memoirs would undoubtedly be an absolute bestseller.