I have a wooden Rudall Carte piccolo (with a plastic/bakelite-looking head!), which was bought for me by my parents when I left school..they bought it from a local orchestral society where for years it had been borrowed by students. I knew it was old, and have never had it serviced, but have been playing it on and off...it takes a bit of warming up but once going is fine. I was chatting with the man who runs my flute choir today and he informed me it was probably well over 100 years old!!! He also said that to get it serviced would probably be a specialist job, and be quite expensive. I had no idea it was so old, and wondered if anyone knew anything about old Rudall Carte piccolos? I'd love to find out more about them.

I know I WANT one... but that's about it!

its prob made of ebonite early form of plastic. Has it got a serial number?

I can just about make out a serial number at the top of the main body...6565. The body is definitely wood, in fact if you look under all the key mechanisms it has a red sheen, so some kind of dark red wood. The head though could be that plastic you mention...and I can just about make out "Rudall Carte London" stamped into that.

Some of the Rudall Cartes are LOVELY. I played on my teachers for about 8 months, a wooden piccolo with a metal lined headjoint. The scale wasn't the best to todays standards but the sound it made was amazing.