Rudall Carte Serial Numbers Flute Fingerings. Serial numbers, dates, makers. Rudall Carte Guards' Model Flute. With the additions of a C# trill key. 773 Rudall Carte & Co. Stamp: Stamped on body: (crown)/ RUDALL/ CARTE & CO Ltd/ 23 BERNERS STREET/ OXFORD STREET/ LONDON/ 22849; on headjoint and footjoint: (crown)/ RUDALL/ CARTE & CO Ltd/ LONDON. Flute players using a Rudall & Rose as a regular session instrument? Flute players using a Rudall & Rose as a regular session instrument? Robert Bigio's book has tables of serial numbers for the different classes of flute as. It is not a Rudall Rose and Carte flute but a Rudall. Rudall, Rose and Carte, 20 Charing Cross, London. Rudall, Rose and Carte, 20 Charing Cross, London, serial number 6225. Eight key flute, red cocus wood, large holes, from 1858-71. Original case and certificate as shown. My friend Frank Claudy thinks this is one of the best flutes he has played, and I agree.

An excellent modification of the Boehm fingering system, along with a healthy dose of British curmudgeonism, kept the 'improved' 1867 system alive and in production well past the middle of the 20th century. Player

The previous owner found this flute, black with tarnish, in a vintage instrument shop in Philadelphia. During restoration, this beautiful silver instrument slowly emerged.

The elegantly engraved barrel embouchure is surprisingly free blowing and, with assistance from very thin head and body tubing, delivers a strong bottom end. The riser is carved through a layer of wood sandwiched between the embouchure barrel and the head tube.

LEFT: Note the 'backward' layout of the non-Briccialdi thumb keys. Closing the upper key only give B natural, adding the lower gives Bb, opposite but more logical than the standard Boehm flute. The 1867 system fingering also sounds an open D without added trill keys.

RIGHT: Note the Dorus (normally open) G#. All left hand fingers down gives a G, lifting the little finger gives G# -- again, backward from the modern fingering, yet again, more logical in that the more fingers down, the lower the note. This system also allows a truer E3 to sound without added mechanism of split-E or high E facilitator.

LEFT: In the 1867 system the R1 normally controls two touches. The upper touch gives F# (and closes the open G#) while the lower touch sounds F natural. In an early modification of this flute, the upper touch was removed, requiring the use of modern split fingering for the F# (and remembering to close the open G#). The smaller photo shows a similar flute with an unaltered F# touch.

RIGHT: The logic of the open G# doesn't carry through to include an open D# -- too many objections from the old fogies, no doubt. Note the elegant, flowing R4 touches for D# and C#.

ABOVE: The close-up 'clamshell' shows the cradle supporting the low C roller hidden beneath the C# touch.

Tiny letters 'C.D.I.' are engraved on the back of the barrel. I was naturally curious if this might be the maker's initials, or perhaps a coded serial number. Eventually Mark Norman came to the rescue and let me know that when Rudall Rose Carte and Company began making metal flutes, they did indeed use a simple code based on the word 'MUSICTRADE' with M=1, U=2, S=3 etc. So 'C.D.I.' represents metal flute #594. They apparently became bored with the code or found it too cumbersome when they reached four digit numbers....

The 1867 Patent flute is in some respects superior to the Boehm flute that has become standardized today. A major drawback is the increased complexity of the mechanism. However, once it is properly set up, it is very robust and stable, requiring minimal adjustment -- almost, but not quite, exactly unlike the Windows 98 operating system.

Dating: I assume an 1867 system flute was made after 1867 :-) and prior to 1874 by which time the firm had become Rudall, Carte & Co.
Anyone want to try replacing the missing F# touch for me?

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The firm of Rudall & Rose, later Rudall, Rose & Carte, and finally Rudall Carte, dominated flute making in Britain for a century and a half from their founding in 1822. For much of their existence almost every professional flute player and most serious amateurs in Britain played on one of this firm’s instruments. The original firm, Rudall & Rose, produced simple-system flutes of the highest quality before they were persuaded by Richard Carte, a student of George Rudall, to begin production of Theobald Boehm’s early conical flute. The firm went on to buy the British rights to manufacture Boehm’s 1847 cylindrical flute, which is the basis of the instrument most flute players use today. Richard Carte, a brilliant businessman, joined the firm as a partner in the early 1850s and transformed them from a small business producing high- quality flutes to a hugely-successful concern that produced and sold flutes and most other instruments as well as publishing books, music and, for eight decades, The Musical Directory, an annual guide to the music business in Britain.

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Rudall, Rose & Carte, as they became, bought the business of Thomas Key, military musical instrument maker, adding brass and percussion instruments to their catalogue. In addition to their instruments and publications, the firm promoted concerts, for a time under the management of Richard Carte’s son, Richard D’Oyly Carte, who later made his fortune promoting the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. The firm became Rudall, Carte & Company in 1872. This book is a comprehensive history of the firm and contains detailed descriptions of the many innovative instruments they made. There are hundreds of colour photographs of flutes, alto flutes, bass flutes and piccolos, each shown in at least two views, and where necessary in three or four views with photographs of details. The firm’s output is shown in context with photographs of dozens of flutes made by their competitors including Willis, Prowse, Monzani, Wood, Wylde, ‘Pratten’s Perfected’ by Boosey & Co., Fentum, Godfroy, Koch, Boehm, Laurent, Gerock, Badger, Ward, Card, Siccama, Clinton, Lot, Collard and Boehm & Mendler.

Rudall Rose, & Carte simple system flute register THE RUDALL & ROSE - RUDALL, ROSE & CARTE - RUDALL CARTE & CO. REGISTER This is an attempt to document surviving simple system flutes made by Geo. Rudall, Rudall & Rose, Rudall, Rose & Carte & Co. And Rudall Carte & Co. The main source of this information has been auction house sites, E-bay auction listings, music instrument collections, internet flute sites, Robert Bigio's work 'The art of the flute', highly recommended, and from contact with owners of Rudall & Rose, Rudall, Rose & Carte and Rudall & Carte simple system flutes such as John McLeod, Jem Hammond, Andrew Kirb