DCM 1037: Rudall Carte & Co. Flute in G (High Pitch)

Thinned head with ebonite embouchure plate. DCM ledger: "The G Flute is one of the instruments made to order of Sir Arthur Sullivan [for the first performance of "Ivanhoe"...in 1891], but the body and foot being cracked was afterwards replaced with new wood, and somehow or other another number was placed on it."According to correspondence between DCM and Shiel (previous owner), the ebonite flute was returned to Shiel. This instrument may be a later, entirely new wooden body joint, thereby explaining the serial no. 3156, which would date it after 1898. However, the key work may be from the original instrument. Furthermore, DCM indicates the head was thinned and then outfitted with an ebonite embouchure plate.
Instrument type: Flute in G (High Pitch)
Medium: Cocus, ebonite embouchure plate, silver or silver plate keys, ferrules. Head lining and body tenon of nickel silver, ribs of nickel silver with silver plate.; 49.8 cm.
Key Holes System: Boehm system, to low C (G), closed G#, posts on ribs.
Mark Maximum: (crown) / RUDALL / CARTE & Cº / 23 BERNERS STREET / OXFORD STREET / LONDON / 3156
Mark Additional: Mark on upper body. Mark on head: (crown) / RUDALL / CARTE & Cº LTD. / LONDON
Condition: Head joint, both sections, cracked.
Provenance: John T. Shiel, Walkden, near Manchester, England, 30 Dec. 1930.

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.