Condition: Restored by Patrick Olwell. Repaired crack in head joint and barrel.
Asa Hopkins was the first to adapt a water powered mill to flute making at Litchfield Connecticut which became thereafter known as "Fluteville".
On this flute, Pat did a good bit of reaming and fine tuning to bring the intonation closer to what modern players expect. Plays well at A440hz. Intonation is very good. One must lip down C# and C a bit. The low D was brought up considerably but still requires a bit of push to play in tune relative to the rest of the flute. Still, the flute has great energy and sweetness thanks to the beautifully aged stained boxwood.
Mr. Hopkins passed in 1838. Pat estimates that this flute was made between 1829 and 1837.
It is well known that Henry David Thoreau played a 4-key boxwood flute similar to this by Meachum.
Thoreau's Flute
By Louisa M. Alcott
We, sighing, said, "Our Pan is dead;
His pipe hangs mute beside the river;—
Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
But Music's airy voice is fled.
Spring mourns as for untimely frost;
The bluebird chants a requiem;
The willow-blossom waits for him;—
The Genius of the wood is lost."
Then from the flute, untouched by hands,
There came a low, harmonious breath:
"For such as he there is no death;—
His life the eternal life commands;
Above man's aims his nature rose:
The wisdom of a just content
Made one small spot a continent,
And tuned to poetry life's prose.
"Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,
Swallow and aster, lake and pine,
To him grew human or divine,—
Fit mates for this large-hearted child
Such homage Nature ne'er forgets,
And yearly on the coverlid
'Neath which her darling lieth hid
Will write his name in violets.
"To him no vain regrets belong,
Whose soul, that finer instrument,
Gave to the world no poor lament,
But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.
O lonely friend! he still will be
A potent presence, though unseen,—
Steadfast, sagacious, and serene:
Seek not for him,—he is with thee."
September, 1863
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