Transverse flute

Description

This instrument was originally owned by Wm. Divine, principal flute Royal Artillery (Woolwich) Band between 1825 and 1842, and later Bandmaster 4th Light Dragoons. It is a side-blown flute made of boxwood in five sections (head, barrel, upper and middle joints, and foot), with ivory ferrules and silver keywork. It has six pewter-plug-cup keys (i.e. a nineteenth-century type of key in which the pad is a tapered plug of pewter or other soft metal riveted loosely to the key end, and the tonehole is lined with a similarly tapered metal bushing or sleeve that supposedly ensured an airtight seal), mounted in blocks and foot stock bulge, with flat brass springs attached to keys. The low C and C-sharp keys have overlapping touches. This instrument has a patented Potter tuning head, in which the head and barrel are lined with metal, and the latter slides to six graduated positions through the extended metal tenon from the head. The cap is missing, but the ivory threaded stopper screw is present, as well as the cork stopper. The embouchure hole is circular and the tenons are wrapped in thread. Nominal pitch: C.