The Flute: a Jewel of an Instrument. Cartier, My Louis Lot Flute & The American (Boston) Flute makers

Last week I attended the dazzling opening VIP party of the Maison Cartier Exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia (for whom I will perform a solo French Flute concert titled Les Bijoux de la Flûte Française  at 2pm, on Bastille Day 14 July 2018).

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Jane Rutter Les Bijoux de la Flute NGA 14 July

I was so moved by the exquisite range and artistic depth in this remarkable collection of French jewelry: Tiaras, brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and decorative items, commissioned and worn by some of the most extraordinary and beautiful people in the world – the outrageously beautiful trinkets of Indian Rajas, Dame Nellie Melba’s diamond stomacher brooch, HMQ Elizabeth’s “Halo” tiara, worn by Kate Middleton at her wedding, Daisy Fellowes’ Tutti-Frutti Hindu necklace, Barbara Hutton’s Imperial jadeite necklace, Princess Grace of Monaco’s 10.48-carat diamond engagement ring, Elizabeth Taylor’s diamond and ruby necklace, and a selection from the NGA’s fabulous Ballets Russes costumes.

Beautifully curated by American Margaret Young-Sanchez (who I had the pleasure to meet, along with luminaries from Cartier and the NGA), I was pleased to recount to them that my 1887 Louis Lot flute #4742 was copied by a Boston Jeweller, and had contributed to the great American tradition of flute making. Louis Lot flutes are considered to be the Stradivarius of the Flute world.

Haynes – originally a Boston Jeweller, copied a Louis Lot flute (owned by French Flutist Charles Molé), setting up a flute-making & flute repair shop in Boston, and also establishing the silver Lot-pattern flute as a benchmark for professional instruments, (this was followed by other manufacturers including Verne Q. Powell). My current concert flutes are a rose gold Haynes Flute, and a rose gold Verne Q. Powell. Both my main squeeze flutes are direct descendants of my Louis Lot- direct from a Jeweller- thus fitting for The National Gallery of Australia to invite me to play these beautiful flutes including the Lot to celebrate their important exhibition!

 

My flutes have always been the most important jewels in my life….After my performance at the Alain Marion tribute concert in the 1999 NFA Atlanta Flute Convention, I received a phone call from the son of great American Flutist, Albert Tipton, offering for me to buy Albert Tipton’s Louis Lot flute. (He was looking for a French Flute player to buy his father’s flute. At the time, my great friend and colleague, Dr Sheryl Cohen (an ex-student of Tipton and later- like me- a disciple Alain Marion and Jean-Piere Rampal), persuaded me to purchase the flute-Sheryl reiterated the importance of the flute, and that it should go to a flute player whose playing is absolutely French School (especially a player who would not change its perfection by changing its tone holes). The flute had been previously owned by Charles Molé, who had taken his Louis Lot flutes from Paris to Boston, where he enjoyed the role as principal flute in the Boston Symphony from 1890. He commissioned the first silver Louis Lot flute to be copied by Haynes…

In a letter from Albert Tipton to Jan Scott, Tipton says that Powell copied his Lot #4742,( which was made in 1887 for Charles Molé). This flute – mine-is a model 6, silver flute with B foot and gold lipplate. Interestingly: when Tipton’s son sold me the the flute, it came with a second ebony baroque-style headjoint, which I often play for Baroque music.

C.P.E. Bach Sonata in A minor excerpt played on Louis Lot

The flute itself, when played with the silver and gold headjoint, is an absolute delight: the sound is delicate, sensitive, responsive, strong, and-if played in the French Flute style-perfectly intune. Its sound places one immediately right inside the heart of the great French Flute School- a jewel which transports the player-and dare I say-listener to a by-gone era of beauty, elegance, exquisite technique and charm – as does the magnificent jewelry in the Carteir Exhibition. Don’t miss the exhibition or my Flute concert at NGA Canberra.-Jane Rutter

 Vivaldi la notte excerpts

Other Sources thanks to : Bernard Duplaix, David and Nina Shorey Antique Flues,
and the National Flute Association USA
Powell flute incorporated in 1927

Albert Tipton (March 16, 1917 – October 5, 1997) was an American flutist, pianist and conductor. In 1966, Time placed Albert Tipton amongst the “30 first-rate flutists” in the United States and Europe.[1] He studied with William Kincaid at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.