Another Beautiful Wylde for sale on eBay!

[Jon C.]

This looks like a nice one!
I have only seen the Queens seal stamped in the upper section once before, with a Blackman flute.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WOODEN-ANTIQUE- ... 35b9c74e04
Okay,my guess it will go for GBP 3,250.00

[kkrell]

My guess is it goes unsold, then is possibly re-listed.

[Steampacket]

Looks very nice indeed, but probably a high-pitched flute, going by Ellis' table:
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory27.htm
I guess 2.650 sterling max, It won't sell for the "buy it now price" in this recession

[kkrell]

Looks very nice indeed, but probably a high-pitched flute, going by Ellis' table:
http://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory27.htm

Not sure where you got that from any of those tables. The Wylde is listed as "LENGTH FROM BOTTOM TO BLOW HOLE 585 mm" (not sure where within the embouchure the measurement applies). On a conical body, I'd think that would most likely be A=440, or near enough with some possible slide extension. Maybe you're thinking of 565 mm as a likely indicator of High Pitch as per some previous thread discussions (or 580 was mentioned by Jem as High Pitch for a Boehm cylinder). I believe my Wylde is about 580 mm and doesn't need any more than a normal slide position.

[Steampacket]

"Not sure where you got that from any of those tables. The Wylde is listed as "LENGTH FROM BOTTOM TO BLOW HOLE 585 mm" (not sure where within the embouchure the measurement applies). On a conical body, I'd think that would most likely be A=440, or near enough with some possible slide extension" kkrell.

The flute was made in England 1832-38 says the dealer, and A wasn't 440. So maybe the flute will sound A at 440 with "normal" slide ext. as you say. but maybe not be in tune with itself? Seems to be the achilles heel of some old English flutes playing at 440. No need to get excited though
From Ellis' table:
444.5 - 1810 Potter flute London
453.3 - 1837 (1827?) R&R London
447.11 - 1845 tuning fork England
452.5 - 1845-1854 Philharmonic Band under Sir Michael Costa England
445.7 - 1860 London

[kkrell]

Ah, but the year isn't necessarily right, according to Langwill. That address, Wylde is 1838-1852. I submit it's later than the seller claims.

[LorenzoFlute]

And they didn't make major changes to the C#/Eb distance over the years.
Anyway, Jon...: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=86434&start=15

[Steampacket]

"Ah, but the year isn't necessarily right, according to Langwill. That address, Wylde is 1838-1852. I submit it's later than the seller claims" kkrell.

Thanks for that, I don't have access to my Langwill here at work. Aye, well even in 1877 classical ensembles/bands in England were as high as 452 MHz so I'm still assuming it is a high pitched nice flute.

From C&F 23 Feb 2007 - Matt Paris:
AndrewK once told me that you could tell if a flute is high pitch by some details, like the distance between the block that holds the D# key and the top of the footjoint. On a high pitch Turner I bought on ebay (terrible flute BTW) it was less than 5 mm. On my RR it's 19, and it plays very well at 440.

[jemtheflute]

With a sounding length over 580mm and a conoid body, it WILL NOT BE A HIGH PITCH FLUTE. With that sounding length, the scaling is probably typical of R&R style flutes, essentially orientated towards A c430, but to achieve that the head would need to be pulled out pretty much as far as it would go. It will also almost certainly not (or barely, with very open blowing) tune any sharper than A=455 with the slide fully closed, at which the scale tuning will be noticeably off/stretched, It will probably play at 440 with slightly stretched scaling (flat low D, slightly sharp A & B) at about 1/3 slide extension, just like the majority of 1830-1860 Rudalls and related/similar simple system flutes. As I wrote in the other thread, the vendor is Conor Moloney (identified from his eBay listing published mobile number). He is asking top dollar, probably unrealistically so in the current climate, but he is a reputable and reliable source who knows his stuff. If he says it plays well at 440, it does.

@ Steampacket - suggest you check back to this and related threads re: pitch and dimensions. FWIW, the SL of my R&R PH #4683 made in c1843 is 578mm - see my posts on page 2 of linked thread.

That Ellis table is just picking single examples of reference sources, by the looks of it, and (see my stuff on that linked thread above and also Terry's website pages on this subject) if you measure a flute (as they undoubtedly did with their R&R) with the tuning slide fully closed, you won't get its core target pitch, just the sharpest it can go!

[Steampacket]

THERE'S NO NEED TO SHOUT Jem - I'll have a gander at the link you suggested though.