Giuseppe DONATI (1836-1925) was the ‘inventor’ of the ocarina. His hometown was Budrio in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, about 15 kilometres east of Bologna, where today there is even an ocarina museum. Other makers sprung up and are known as the Budrio makers. They include Ercole MEZZETTI (1841-1918) & Alberto Napoleone MEZZETTI...
This is a fabulous ten-keyed flute made in Vienna in 1851 at the workshop of the family of Stephan KOCH (1772-1828). Stephan Koch made all kinds of woodwind instruments, including bassoons, csakans and clarinets in his workshop in Vienna. However, he is most known for his improvements to the design...
This is a nice and typical example of a Cocuswood flute made by the famous Italian-born, turned Englishman, Tebaldo MONZANI (1762-1839). It is a three-piece construction. Two head joints are supplied, rather than just one head joint with a tuning slide. [Tuning slides often cause cracking in the wood.] There...
This reform flute was made by Carl KRUSPE Junior (1865-1929) when he was active in Leipzig, Germany, between 1893 and 1929. He was the eldest son of Friedrich Wilhelm KRUSPE (1838-1911) and successor of the Kruspe company, founded by his grandfather Carl KRUSPE Senior (1808-1885) in Erfurt. The flute was...
This sensational conical ring-key flute was fully restored by master woodwind instrument makers. The instrument is crafted in gorgeous Cocuswood with nickel/German silver ring keys and rings. It plays at a pitch of a=440Hz. Furthermore, it was supplied in a brand-new, leather-covered wooden case which was designed especially for this...
Does nickel silver really contain silver? The simple answer is ‘No’. It’s a copper alloy that normally contains about 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. It is called nickel silver because it does really look like silver in terms of colour and shininess. Sterling silver, in contrast, is an...
Lot’s beginnings There’s not really a ‘lot’ [sorry ?] that we can add to the literature about Monsieur Louis Esprit LOT (1807-96), who was the preeminent French flute maker of the late nineteenth century. Louis Esprit Lot was born on 17 May 1807 in La Couture, which is situated in northern France,...
This spectacular, naturally figured, boxwood romantic flute was made by the woodwind and brass instrument maker, Anton KRAUS (1813-1901). Anton KRAUS was born in 1813 in Eger which was the German name for the town of Cheb in the Czech Republic. He started working for the bassoon maker Wenzel HORAK in...
Bad Urach is a beautiful spa town in the Swabian Alb, about 50 kilometres from Stuttgart in Baden Württemberg, Germany. The town is famous as a health resort with mineral thermal water for treating different illnesses. It features lovely old streets with beautiful half-timbered houses in excellent historical condition –...
If you love early flutes, then you must have heard of the great Romantic flute maker, Wilhelm LIEBEL. (Christian) Wilhelm LIEBEL was born in Adorf on 2 November 1793. He was initially trained to make instruments by his father Johann Gottfried LIEBEL (1752-1822) in their home town. Wilhelm continued his...
Cocuswood is the very dense hardwood of a Caribbean flowering tree called the ‘Brya ebenus’.
‘Brya ebenus’ belongs to the pea family ‘Fabaceae’ and is native to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Cuba. It also goes by the quite romantic name of Jamaica Rain Tree because it blossoms bright yellow-orange flowers right after it rains.
Cocuswood’s lovely medium to dark reddish-brown colour is further enhanced with dark blackish streaks. With time, its colour darkens. The grain of cocuswood tends to be straight or a bit wavy. It has a wonderful natural lustre and a fine, even texture.
So absolutely nothing to do with coconuts or coconut trees at all! Really!
With its amazing density, hardness and colour, it’s no wonder that this wood was considered to be one of the very best tonewoods and was widely used in the manufacture of woodwind instruments in the 1800s. It was an exotic, tropical alternative to woods such as boxwood, which were widely used at the time. Flutes, oboes and bagpipes were crafted in cocuswood as well as other items such as carvings or inlays.
Back then cocuswood was all the rage and sadly, due to this previous over-exploitation and the small size of its natural habitat, this wonderful natural resource has been commercially exhausted. So, it is not a protected species, but extremely expensive and difficult to source – making it a very special wood indeed.
Roughly serial numbers 1-102 c. 1810, 103-500 c.1811, 501-1000 c. 1814, 1001-1500 c. 1817, 1501-2000 c. 1821
