FS: H. Oppenheim, London 8 k flute, flamed boxwood, ivory

[Paul Groff]

Hi all,

A very nice London 8 key flute for sale, in very flamey box/ivory/sterling. Possibly someone here knows more about 8 key flutes with the mark of this dealer (maker?). My flute looks much nicer than other Oppenheims I've seen, so this flute may have been made by another workshop. Purchased in an English auction a couple of decades ago (by a pro flautist friend of mine, who was over there), and never fully restored. It needs pads, cleaning, and possibly a polish to the bore. I held on to this flute as a favorite for myself, but since I rarely play flute any more I don't really need one this nice.

No cracks to any of the joints, the ivory rings, or the ivory endcap with ivory screw for the cork adjustment. Keys are sterling. The boxwood is beautifully flamed. The tuning slide is covered with box. The bore is fairly wide and holes are medium size -- this is a big sounding flute. When I got the flute, there were a couple of tiny slivers of box missing from the top of 2 keyblocks -- it looked like these may have just been broken off when someone tried the keys, possibly during the inspection period for the auction. The keyblock for the short F key has been repaired. Otherwise the wood is in great shape. There are a couple of deep scratches that mimic cracks but definitely are not. The headjoint is lined.

There is a (possibly original?) decorative sterling lipplate around the embouchure; this is not set into the wood so if it were removed only a couple of tiny pinholes would disturb the outside cylindrical dimension of the headjoint. Under and inside the lipplate, the embouchure looks unmodified. With the lipplate, the flute plays near A 441 + for me, with the tuning slide fully in, but IMO the intonation is spectacular around A 432 - 435, with the tuning slide out a half inch or more. It actually plays down to A 415 with the slide further out, but I'm not happy with the intonation that low, despite cork adjustments. Of course someone who plays the flute much better than I might have a very different impression of its best pitch, and a couple of excellent Irish players who have tried it seemed to have no trouble using it in a session at O'Leary's in Boston, where we were at least A 440. A couple of well-known flute makers have seen this flute, liked it a lot, and commented that removing the lip-plate might improve the tone quality as well as bringing up the pitch of the entire flute by removing that small increment to the chimney height. At that time, I wanted to hang on to the flute and to keep it in the condition in which I got it.

No original case, but with sale of the flute I would consider selling the antique American walnut flute case that I have used for the flute. That case is oversize, but attractive, very sturdy, and worth $100 IMO.

I'll take the best offer for this flute, possibly including part trade of concertinas or good button accordions in any condition. But I'm mainly selling this to raise some cash for the holidays, so cash or part-cash offers preferred. Please email me at groffco (at) gmail (dot) com for photos. The flute can be seen and played in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.

Thanks for reading,

Paul Groff

edited to add link to craigslist ad, with photo:

http://madison.craigslist.org/msg/2723572545.html

[MTGuru]

Bump per OP request.