Flute, C
Maker
Pierre Naust
Date1692-1710 ca.
Place MadeParis, France, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedStamped all sections: NAUST / [lion rampant]Markingsnone
DescriptionBoxwood body in three sections with massive ivory headcap and ferrules (only the ferrule around the head joint socket is original; the others are replacements). One silver key with square flap, mounted in a turned ring, closes over a hole positioned between the ivory ring and a bead turned from the wood of the foot. Spring is attached to the wood.
Little is known about Pierre Naust (ca. 1660-1709), who is recognized as one of the great woodwind makers of the Baroque period. His workshop was on the rue de L'Arbre Sec, St. Germain l'Auxerrois in Paris, was one of a number of leading 17th-century woodwind makers, including Hotteterre, Lesieux, Lot, and others, who hailed from La Couture—the region, west of Paris, bordering the royal residences of Anet and Versailles—where running water and good wood, essential for making woodwinds, were readily available.
The Museum's three-piece flute by Naust—the oldest flute in the NMM's collections—and the other known example, preserved at the Musikinstrumentenmuseum in Berlin, represent the early Hotteterre design. The other complete, three-piece Naust flute known to survive, now at the Musée de la Musique in Paris, has a cylindrical foot joint, more typical of three-piece flutes of the middle period (ca. 1700-1719). Another example, at the Museum of Musical Instruments in St. Petersburg, Russia, does not have its original foot joint.
DimensionsOverall length: 665 mm
Embouchure: 9.3 mm x 9.4 mm
Sounding length: 577 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2002 from Friedrich von Huene, Brookline, Massachusetts.
Published ReferencesNMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 51, 62-63)
Welch, John W. "Mozart's Magic Flute." _BYU Studies_, vol. 43, no. 3 (2004): 191.
André Larson, “Important Flutes Acquired . . . Rare Baroque Instrument Is the Oldest Flute in the Museum,” National Music Museum Newsletter 29, No. 3 (August 2002), pp. 1-2.
Phillip T. Young. 4900 Historical Woodwind Instruments (London: Tony Bingham,
1993), p. 168 (Y7).
Peter Spohr, Kunsthandwerk im Dienste der Musik: Querfl"ten aus aller Welt im Wandel der Zeit. Exhibition catalog, Historisches Museum, Frankfort, March 6-April 7, 1991 and Stadtmuseum, Munich, April 14-May 5, 1991 (Frankfurt am Main: Kurt Reichmann, 1991), pg. 13 (A4).
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of John R. and Janice Waltner in honor of their daughters, Mary Law and Ann O'Donnell, 2002
Object number10113
On View
Not on view
