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Simon Waters
9101 - 8-key conical flute stamped Boosey & Co, Pratten's Perfected
This relatively unusual 'luxury' Pratten's Perfected instrument was likely made by John Hudson, the foreman at Boosey at the time. It is of dense cocus with particularly elegant silver keywork. Unlike the majority of Pratten flutes it does not have pewter plug keys for C# and C. The flute was restored by Chris Wilkes, having initially been discovered among umbrellas and walking sticks in an antiques market at St Gregory's Church, Norwich. It is stamped BOOSEY & CO/ 24 HOLLES STREET/LONDON/8822/R S PRATTEN/ PERFECTED, which apparently dates it to around 1869. The flute was measured by Forbes and Yola Christie of Windward Flutes (https://www.windwardflutes.com) in Nova Scotia as part of their research project into producing the ideal instrument for Irish Traditional Music. I like to think that flutes made by Windward have some of the DNA of this instrument.
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