S800
Louis Lot
#: Serial #1804
Paris France
Stamp: Engraved on headjoint: L.L./ LOUIS LOT/ PARIS/ 1804/ BREVET. On body: L. L./ LOUIS-LOT/ PARIS/ 1804. Note headjoint name is without hyphen.
Comments: This is the flute that represents the full development of Louis Lot. Made just three years before Lot's retirement in 1876, this flute shows most of the adjustments and improvements Lot made during his lifetime.This is the ideal performance flute for modern lovers of Louis Lot. To this pinnacle flutemaking has yet to return.
Date: Made in 1873, under Louis Lot himself.
Material: Silver flute with original gold embouchure. Steel springs. Original pad washers converted to spuds on main line only.
Hallmarks: No hallmarks.
System: This is Lot's model 5, silver flute with C foot. The original gold embouchure adds to its price and elegance. The trill is to B. The crown is the metal screw type.The tone holes are modestly graduated. Casual measurements (without removing the mechanism) give 13.3mm for the left hand, 14.3 for the right hand, and 15.3 for the foot.
Condition: This flute is in excellent original condition. The only damage is a small event on the footjoint strap, and some pliers marks on the backclutch. The headjoint has been cut about 6 mm, and the ring removed. The original pad washers were changed on the top keys by David Chu, who overhauled this instrument a few years ago. David Chu recalls that the seam at the lower tenon is weakened.The lipplate is perfect. The crown is perfect. The mechanism is worn only from careful use.
Pitch: This flute was clearly made at French New pitch of A=435. The headjoint has been cut to allow higher pitches, certainly A=440, leaving the final determination of possible pitch up to the player.
Sounding length: Current minimum sounding length 599 mm.
Measurements: Emb 10.4 x 12.5 mm. Scale 227 mm.
Weight gram: 378 g.
Case: In new case.
Restoration status: Overhauled by David Chu a few years ago. New spuds placed on main line keys, No resoldering necessary.
Price: Sorry, Sold.
This flute was made during the great and final period of this extraordinary Master's working life. Although minor innovations were still to come, such as replacing the shoulder clutches seen here with the "hanging T" clutch, nonetheless this is the flute perfected.
Lot generally engraved the headjoints but stamped the bodies with his name. It is hard to see, but he still hyphenated his name here. The body is also numbered 1804.
Louis Lot's footjoint design was brilliant when he came up with it around 1847. The design did not change until the pinless foot, soon to appear.
The underside of the lipplate is clean enough to serve lunch on, if you could get at it.
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Serial number 1804 was made early in 1873, if Tulla's numbers are accurate. The Germans were beginning to leave France, finally, and Alts was busy carrying on the work begun by Dorus at the Conservatoire. Lot may have gotten a new engraver, since the omnipresent hyphen in his name is not engraved, while the stamp on the body includes it.
Although customers still occasionally ordered Dorus G# flutes, the "independent G#" was by now standard.
The middle of the three tails to the left of the G# slips under the end of the thumb key for a B trill, which the French called a C trill. On most flutes today the trill key closes the Bb key instead.
At the very bottom of the flute, for a period of several years, Lot built a little obelisk to serve as a stopper for the C key. There is a mystery behind this little folly, which graces some of Lots very finest instruments.
The core of this magnificent flute is the completely original Gold embouchure. It appears never to have been removed or harmed in any way. The tone of this flute is loud, compact, full, sweet, and broad-all at the whim of the player, thanks to this fantastic headjoint.
