This lovely flute has been owned by the same devoted player for more than sixty years; now it needs someone to carry it into the future. Closed G sharp, closed holes, C-foot. There are no cracks to the headjoint and body, with just the usual small hairline by the Eb, repaired and inconsequential. The flute was recently repadded and overhauled, and we have given it a light service ready for sale. It plays easily and feels crisp under the fingers. The silver-liined headjoint is excellent with the original untouched embouchure hole. This is a fine example of Rudall Carte at its best, produced by one of the great makers when the company was at the height of its powers.

Eugene Goulliere was a Parisian who came to Rudall Carte in the 1880s at a time when demand for their professional flutes was growing rapidly. He was already then an experienced flutemaker. Goulliere's mechanisms are characterised by elegant touchpieces and a sense of lightness. He developed his own signature of scrolls on the regulation clutches. At Rudall Carte he made flutes for some of the top players, including Ernest Swingler (Blackpool NPO), Daniel Wood (LSO), Teddy Redfern and Vincent Needham (Halle), Percy Whitaker (LPO), and a series for the great Italian virtuoso Alberto Veggetti.

This flute was completed in February 1917. Goulliere went on to make only five more flutes, including another for Veggetti, before his death, aged 73, in March 1918. It is such a beautiful instrument that one can feel the years of skill and experience that this great flutemaker brought to it.

The flute comes in a modern case. It will not disappoint. Anyone looking for a fine Carte, that has had all the work required carried out regularly, need look no further.