I have got a wooden flute and I want to know the brand of the flute. Does someone know a way to find out? If you think you can help me, I am happy to send you a picture.

Traditionally, any quality flute has a mark of some sort on the head joint below the embouchure hole or it may have something on the upper area of the body.
Does you wooden flute have keys or just holes?

There is no mark on the flute. The flute does have keys and the pitch is around 440. It is made of black wood, ebony I suppose.

How many keys exactly? (I think it's worth you post a picture now... )

Here is a picture of the flute:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/Peter543/Flute.jpg

I also made a picture of some detail. I think originally there has been some sort of rest attached for the left hand:
http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff468/Peter543/Detail.jpg

Great pictures! :-)

They show that it's not an old flute. The mechanism is indeed very modern, and I would say it's an european make, mostly because of the shape of the headjoint where it fits into the body.

Also the design of the embouchure hole shows again a modern design, rather than the old oval conception, it seems to be quite squared. This flute may produce a bright or brilliant sound, depending of course on the way you play it (it's really not the flute alone, but the flute-player combination).

Take a look here:
http://www.hammig-flutes.com/frame/frame_engl.html

Click in "Models" then in "Wooden Flute".
Maybe it's a starting point for your search.

Thanks for your help Zevang, I shall continue my search for the manufacturer!

Very similar in design to the Hammig as Zevang points out but the Hammig does have identifying into.and the image on Hammig shows that it has D# rollers.
http://www.hammig-flutes.com/seiten/modelle/bilder/holzfl_detail1.jpg
http://www.hammig-flutes.com/seiten/modelle/bilder/holzfl_detail2.jpg

It actually may be an earlier Hammig because there are some similarities to the keywork.




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are you sure that there are no identifying marks such as a serial number or name?

Unfortunately there is no mark whatsoever. Maybe it has been on the part that has been removed in the past. I don't know what was the use of that missing part. As you can see on the picture it was attached with four little screws. In the flute case there is some space reserved for that part of the flute.

And the embouchure hole is almost square indeed like Zevang noticed.

I don't think that the part with the 4 screws would have had anything. It is a tradition on wood flutes and metal ones to place an obvious symbol of the company onto the body and/or head joint. This would be placed into the wood as an engraving or as a stamped indentation. There is also a serial number on more modern instruments and some older ones. If that isn't there then it's not very possible to find who made it.

Some companies will have something simple on the ribbing. Haynes handmade flutes had LD on a particular place on the post ribs for a time when Lewis Deveau was making them. But this mark was not a company brand mark like the Wm.S.Haynes initials, the VQP triangle or the three tuning forks of the Yamaha co.. The other issue is that sometimes less famous or smaller flute makers copy an original and their copies can be very exacting in any aspect.

I'd be tempted to send some pictures to the Hammig company of your flute to see if they made it or if they know who did. If there are no marks, the pics should have some overall views as well as some closer shots of the key-work. The shape of the key design can be a telling factor to someone that is in the business.

There are a ton of these on the market today and being manufactured in China. You can buy them for a pretty cheap price and they most often have no markings on them.

Sometimes you can tell from the case or by a certain "smell" of the keywork.

The part that was removed was a crutch holder. Not a label

It's hard to tell from these pictures, but without any markings, I would suspect that its origin is China.

What do the pad retainers look like?

Joe B

I played on a flute that looked very much like yours at Lark In the Morning. Don't remember the price, but it wasn't much (compared to the Hammig or Powell wooden flutes).

Joe B is right. Here's an example:
http://www.dhgate.com/grenadilla-wood-wooden-flute-c-foot-b-foot/p-ff808081303eda89013043c4be865fae.html

A quality instrument of this sort would cost at least 4 times the price.
This is not the same cut of head joint as the one in question though.