DCM 0236: William Card Flute in C

Instrument type: Flute in C
Medium: Cocus, silver keys and ferrules, metal-lined head.; 63.1 cm.
Key Holes System: Old system, conical bore, of the type known as Card's system. According to an indication in the DCM ledger, the head joint had a rectangular engraved silver plaque, now missing, which read: CARD'S / Improved (cursive) / PATENT. If so, this instrument incorporated Card's use of the Boehm system in the right hand but having only finger rings for right hand fingers 1, 2. However, this instrument has an added or possibly replaced (due to what seems to be the original key post location) finger 3 ring for the more typical Boehm F# fingering. The Card system also includes an alternate upper C key for the left thumb, now missing. Other alterations to this instrument, according to the DCM ledger, include: "Keys evidently have been modified, by experiment. Now is closed G#, probably once had Dorus G#. Once had a D key (or special C#); hole now filled with wood. Foot keys in Boehm style of 1832."
Mark Maximum: See Keys, etc., above.
Condition: Head joint, both sections, cracked. According to DCM, obtained with engraved silver plate, inlaid with mark, which is now missing. Present closed G# is a replacement with a key cup rather smaller than the original. Post holes have been plugged and fingerhole 3 has a bushing from the removal of the former, possibly open, G# alteration. A post hole has been plugged near fingerhole 4, purpose unknown. Lower ferrule on barrel is cracked. Foot joint socket cracked. The body lower tenon shoulder seems to have been slightly cut back with the missing wood material replaced by a horn ferrule.
Provenance: J. Clayton Boyes, Bushey, England, 17 Feb. 1922.

The Dayton C. Miller collection in the Library of Congress, contains nearly 1,700 flutes and other wind instruments, statuary, iconography, books, music, trade catalogs, tutors, patents, and other materials mostly related to the flute. It includes both Western and non-Western examples of flutes from around the world, with at least 460 European and American instrument makers represented. Items in the collection date from the 16th to the 20th century.