Transverse flute

Description

This is a side-blown flute made of boxwood, in five sections (head, barrel, top and middle joints, and foot joint), with ivory ferrules and silver keywork. It has four 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), which are mounted in wooden blocks and foot stock bulge, and have flat springs attached to them. This instrument has a patented Potter tuning head, in which the head and barrel would be lined with metal, usually brass, and the latter would slide to six graduated positions through the extended metal tenon from the head. The cap mechanism in the head is entirely made of ivory, with a cork stopper. The embouchure hole is circular. Nominal pitch: C.