Alexander Liddle Cocus 8-Key, D

Note: This is a remote international consignment and ships from Ireland. The price includes international shipping; any customs duties or import taxes due on arrival are the buyer's responsibility.

An antique eight-keyed flute in cocuswood that plays at A=440 with the tuning slide only slightly extended. The body carries no maker's stamp; the keys are stamped "AL," the mark generally attributed to Alexander Liddle of London, which places the flute within the years his workshop was active, 1847 to 1879. The head joint is lined.

The flute has been serviced by the Clare flute maker Eamonn Cotter, who also made a new end cap for the head joint. The original cap is included and needs only a new cork. A filled crack in the lined head joint was repaired by the Clare pipe and flute maker Eugene Lambe.

Comes in its original fitted wooden case, lined in red and in excellent condition. The case's lock key has been lost.

About the Maker

Alexander Liddle (1809 to 1873) was a London wind instrument maker. Records place him as a journeyman to the maker George Wood in 1845, and he is listed as an independent maker from 1847, first at 24 Chenies Street off Tottenham Court Road and from the mid-1850s at 35 Devonshire Street, Queen Square. After his death the business continued as Mrs Elizabeth Liddle & Son until 1879. Liddle occasionally supplied simple-system flutes to Rudall, Rose & Carte, who bought in most of their simple-system instruments from other makers, and in 1879 the firm sold flutes and piccolos to Boosey.

Keys stamped AL turn up on flutes with unstamped bodies like this one, and on flutes sold under the names of London dealers such as Metzler, which fits a workshop that both made complete instruments and supplied the trade.