Here we have a fine-looking item – one of some very rare antique walking stick instruments. It’s a musical cane that doubles as a working four-string violin. Flutes and violins were in fact the most popular instrument walking sticks that became all the rage in the eighteenth and nineteenth...
The Rolmonica was the ultimate 1920s musical gadget. It was invented and then in 1922 first patented by Joseph Le Roy Banks. He then formed the company Rolmonica Music Co and the instrument went into production. It was advertised as a pocket-player piano. A removable 12-note harmonica (made in Germany) was...
This bass ophicleide, nominal pitch 8-foot C, has eleven keys and was made by Henry SMITH workshop. It now has eight keys at the front and three at the rear. We think it dates to around 1840. The workshop was based in Wolverhampton, England. When it came to us, this ophicleide,...
We are absolutely thrilled that one of our valued customers has shared not only photos but also a recording of the Georg GRAESSEL, alias Gräßel or Grässel (1874-1948) reform-style flute….now restored! Georg Graessel was born in Regnitzlosau in Bavaria, Germany in 1874, right near the border with the Czech Republic. The...
This solid silver Louis Lot flute was made right at the beginning of the Émile BARAT (1846-1918) ownership. Barat was born in Joigny, France in 1846. He ran a music shop in Paris from 1874 until 1889. He took over the Lot company in 1889 and flute production was...
This four-piece METZLER boxwood flute has a beautiful stain and yes… you’re right really distinctive and unusual brass rings. With its generous embouchure and fingerholes, it plays beautifully and delivers a wonderfully colourful sound. We think it was made around 1800 by Valentine METZLER (c.1756-1832), not his son of course, as...
Crafted in the mid-nineteenth century, this exquisite boxwood fife by Joseph WALLIS (1825-1883) is a testament to the craftsmanship of the era. Joseph Wallis started his instrument-making business and shop in 1848. It expanded and prospered over eighty years and three generations until it came to an abrupt end in...
This remarkable and rare flute was created by George Leonhard LINTNER (1794-1859), who received training and licensing as a maker of both brass and woodwind instruments – quite unusual for the time. He worked alongside his father, Johann Georg LINTNER, who came from Tyrnau in Slovakia, in their hometown of...
This oboe was made by Rudall, Carte & Co Ltd. The company was set up in 1872 as successors to Rudall Rose, Carte & Co. Later in 1943-1944, it was acquired by Boosey & Hawkes. Rudall Carte & Co didn’t make many oboes at the turn of the century as...
W. Stowassers Söhne (W. Stowasser's Sons) was a world-renowned, historic brass musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1824 by Wenzel STOWASSER (1803-1860) in the Bohemian town of Graslitz (now Kraslice, Czech Republic). After Wenzel passed away in 1860, his sons, including Josef, Julius, and Richard, assumed control of the company and expanded...
