This beautiful Louis LOT cocuswood, conical ring-key flute is in playing condition. It was made shortly after Louis Lot had retired and the company was under the ownership of Honoré Désiré VILLETTE – Lot’s first successor. Villette was born on 20.04.1827 in Sorel Moussel – a small village about 10 kilometres away...
This crazy-looking yet elegant metronome was invented and patented by Arthur Gough PINFOLD (1864-1940). Arthur was one of four children, born in Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, England. His father was a watchmaker, jeweller and musician and his children would follow on in his footsteps. At some point, the family relocated to...
We often come across musical instruments with no stamp and no indication as to where they were made or their makers. They remain forever unsigned, unstamped and anonymous. These instruments are often brushed aside and rejected as worthless or inferior. But are they? Why did instrument makers choose anonymity and...
The surname HEIDEGGER is synonymous with instrument making in Passau and Linz. The family’s instrument-making history begins in the 1840s and ceases over 130 years later in 1973. Their story is not unlike other instrument makers of those days…difficult, complicated but for many, very interesting, especially since in this case,...
In the 19th century, several inventors patented ideas to enable the flute to be played vertically. This meant that the flute was held vertically, but blown transversely. Enter the fascinating ‘Giorgi’ flute! This particular Giorgi flute is in excellent condition and probably dates from around 1896-1900. It plays at a=440 Hz...
Here is a really sweet, fifth flute by METZLER – in this case, we think by Martin METZLER (ca. 1755-1809). Very little is known about Martin Metzler and his time in London. We do know that he rented dwellings in the area of Norton Folgate until about 1788. Martin Metzler was...
Here is a beautiful salterio, hammered dulcimer or psaltery. It’s a trapezoidal-shaped salterio with quite an unusual number of bridges – six. It has two sound holes, decorated throughout with foliage and garlands of flowers. The front of the instrument features a Mediterranean bay, which seems to be Catalan in style. There...
Slide whistles or lotus flutes made of ebonite stamped Swanee often show up at auctions and for sale on websites. They can be great fun, but also challenging to play, especially if you want to get a decent melody out of one. People call them Swanee whistles, lotus flutes, slide...
Louis-Maurice KASRIEL (1815-1899) was a musical instrument maker who was born in Krotoschin, Prussia – today's Krotoszyn in Poland. In 1839, he started a company in Paris that would specialise in making harmoniums, harmoniflutes and guide-chants. Louis Maurice Kasriel was married to Sara KAHN. The company was awarded medals for...
This third flute was made by the Bavarian maker Johann Samuel STENGEL (1771-1826). Johann Samuel was the first in a generation of woodwind instrument makers in the business for around 100 years in total. Johann Samuel was born in 1771 in Döhlau/Hof (about 60 kms from Bayreuth) and was a...
Ebonite was invented in 1839 by Charles Goodyear. He found that he could obtain a black material, which was rigid rather than elastic, by mixing together and heating latex and sulphur. The result was a hard rubber and it was given the name ebonite because both the colour and consistency were very similar to ebony (heartwood).
Ebonite would go on to be used in the manufacture of many objects including high-quality fountain pens, bowling balls, clocks, electrical insulating material or saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces.
Ebonite was also employed as an alternative material for making flute bodies. It seems it was first used in flute making in the mid-1800s by New-York-based Alfred G. Badger and other makers followed suit. It was thought to be very advantageous as a material because it did not absorb water, was durable and difficult to break. It was also a bad conductor of heat which meant that alterations in air temperature would not affect the pitch of the flute.
The famous ‘Giorgi Flute’ was made entirely of ebonite (with metal rings) rather than wood by the London firm Joseph WALLIS & Son Limited in around 1900. It was not only constructed in this new hard rubber material, but had no keys!
