Flute – HAMICH

Flutes

This elegant, German, Boxwood flute has ivory rings and a single brass key. We can date it to the late eighteenth century… perhaps around 1780. It was made by HAMICH. But who was HAMICH?

A trawl through the New Langwill Index gives us quite a few matches… but it’s all rather confusing. There is of course the famous woodwind instrument-making dynasty the HAMMIGs. The name seems to change between HAMICH, HAMMIG and HAMMICH over time. In old German, a straight line above a letter can mean there should be two of them (mm). From among them all, it appears that one brother, Christian Gottlob Hammig (1759-1836) started making woodwind instruments, including traversos, piccolos, oboes and clarinets. Another brother, Friedrich Hammig, set up his business in Vienna. The Vienna HAMMIGs tended to stamp WIEN and a Hapsburg eagle on their instruments… so no luck there.

Could this be a flute by Christian Gottlob Hammig? The stamp itself is only on the head joint. It is difficult to read but includes crossed swords, called Kurschwerter in German. This is a typical mark from Saxony [like Meissen porcelain, for example]. But, almost identical to the marks of Karl August GRENSER (1720-1807)… A similar marked flute in E-flat by HAMICH can be found in the Klingenden Museum in Bern, but it also features the mark of a star and is made later. There is also a very similar style flute (MIR 293) in the collection of the Germanisches National Museum in Nuremberg, Germany.  Its construction is similar and is dated from 1785.  However, its condition is poorer in comparison to the one on offer here. One of the middle joints is made by GRENSER.

The instrument itself is beautifully made and there some clues about its age. Although the cap is not original, the embouchure seems untouched. The embouchure is traditionally rounder than oval-shaped. The double profiles on the rings are nicely carved and often found on instruments from that period. The form of the key is fitting with the time. The spring is actually mounted in the wood! This was an early way of making the key mechanism.

The boxwood has acquired a lovely honey colour over time. There are no cracks visible. It plays very nicely indeed. The pitch is around a=430 Hz with the longest middle joint, a=435 Hz, with the middle and a=442 Hz with the shortest.

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Boxwood

Boxwood is a lovely wood and it’s hardly surprising that it remains quite a favourite among today’s woodwind instrument makers. Buxus sempervirens, known as European boxwood, or common boxwood, is a species of flowering plant. It is an evergreen bush really, rather than a tree. It takes a long time to grow and it is difficult to find completely straight trunks without knots to use for items such as flutes.

Boxwood has a uniform grain and is very dense and hard, which is why it was so popular for wood turning and instrument making in the 18th century. At that time many instruments were predominantly made from boxwood. Then several tropical hardwoods became popular during the 1800s as tonewood. People wanted to have furniture and also instruments made from exotic types of wood. So, boxwood lost ground to these newcomers to Europe.

There were also some disadvantages to boxwood: its tendency to warp and easily soil. This led to the ‘banana’ effect with flutes for example, as the wood warped over time.

The wood is naturally yellow in colour and can be left with a natural, polished finished. Boxwood then darkens over time to have a nice honey-yellow colour. It can also be stained using acid staining to give it an orange-brown or dark-brown colour, and in wooden flute construction, many makers use a violin varnish for the finish. This is an extremely arduous technique that requires expertise and precision.

Sadly, since around 2006, the spread of the box tree moth called the Cydalima perspectalis has led to huge losses of boxwood ‘trees’ that have taken hundreds of years to grow. It was sad to see forests of boxwood reduced to almost nothing.

Now it’s very rare and wonderful to see just one full grown 100+ year boxwood tree. So, when that happens – some people just can’t resist and have to hug it!

 

 

E. Rittershausen, Berlin

One of the beautiful stories of mythology tells of the way the first musical instrument was suggested. As the story runs, as Orpheus was walking along the shores of the sea, his foot struck a reed that had been cast up by the waters, and had dried in the sun. The reed gave forth a soft, sweet sound as it was made to vibrate by the stroke of Orpheus’ foot and the result was the lyre or hand-harp of the ancient Egyptians. A similar story, and probably the same one adapted to the wind instruments, is that of Lucretius which says that “the simple flute had its origin from the breathing of western winds over certain reeds,” and thus was suggested the musical pipe, or simple tube, which has developed into one of the most fascinating of instruments.

The most elaborate and beautiful collection of flutes ever displayed in the United States, and probably in the world, was seen by visitors to the German section of the Columbian Exposition. The display was that of E. Rittershausen, of Berlin. It was arranged in a large, square glass case, and consisted of flutes made of various woods, of Ebonite and of sterling silver. The Rittershausen flutes are the standard of the world, and have received the indorsement of the best performers upon this favorite instrument. Until 1832 the flute was not regarded as a perfect instrument. In that year Theobald Boehm, of Munich, brought the instrument to such a degree of perfection as to make it one of the most prominent of orchestral and solo instruments. The Rittershausen flutes are made exactly upon the Boehm system, and with such wondrous skill and delicacy of workmanship as to have long since become the favorite of discriminating flutists. It is, in fact, the instrument universally referred to when the Boehm flute is desired.

Like the illustrious Boehm, Mr. Rittershausen is also a virtuoso as well as a manufacturer, devoting his entire faculties to the production of a perfect flute. By his own practical skill he is enabled to appreciate the many details and requirements in the construction of such an instrument as is demanded by the most fastidious virtuoso. This, it will readily be seen, is an invaluable consideration in the selection of a flute by a skilled performer. And in the rapid progress of musical culture of America, there are many lovers of the beautiful instrument who are its admirers and enthusiastic students at the present time.

Living in the musical city of Berlin, Mr. Rittershausen is thrown in personal contact with the greatest flutists of Europe, thereby receiving many suggestions from them that are of incalculable benefit in the manufacture of his instruments. The Rittershausen factory is located at 107 Bergmann street, Berlin, and its product has been famous from the establishing of the present business in 1870. Each year adds largely to the number of Rittenhausen-Boehm flutes in use in America, and they have received the highest testimonials from the most famous composers and performers in this country as well as those abroad. The American representative of the Rittershausen flutes is Mr. Carl Fischer, No. 6 Fourth Avenue, New York.

Musical Instruments at the World’s Columbian Exposition – Frank D. Abbottt, Charles A. Daniell – 1895 – P. 200