Some Views of 
Rudall, Carte & Co.'s Workshops
At 23, Berners Street

These images of Rudall Carte & Co workshops come from the company's 1922 catalogue.  Unfortunately, I have only a photocopy of the catalogue to work from, but hopefully we will in future be able to get a more direct scan of the images.  I'm reproducing them here a bit larger than life, which is no doubt going to make them very slow to appear.  In many ways they appear better in smaller size, but the larger size might help you make out some details.

At some stage, I'll come back and point out some of the interesting things we can see. 

Now, before we leave these images, compare the second one with this one, taken in 1956.  It shows the renowned metal flute maker, Albert Cooper, sitting at what is probably the same bench!

What makes me think so?  Check out:

• the bold groove running along the woodwork below the window

• the articulated pipe jutting out from the wall (gas perhaps, for soldering?)

• the rectangular wooden tool rack separating work stations

Not exactly state-of-the-art production facilities.  Rudall Carte was by this time owned by Boosey & Hawkes, but they too were not heeding the call to modernise.  By the time I visited Boosey & Hawkes in London in 1974, there was gloom and despair everywhere.  The company limped along and was finally carved up in 1997.

Haynes Workshop, Boston 1904

Before we leave the subject of flute making workshop photos, here's one Casey Burns alerted me to - this time a workshop from the US.  This one is much better detailed than the RC images.

The inscription on the back of the photo tells us were seeing the Wm. S. Haynes Shop, 170 Washington Street, Boston in 1904.  From left to right we have: John Schwelm, Horace La Branche, Wm R. Reitzel and Wm S. Haynes himself.

This link should take you to a nice big image.  If it fails, go to the Dayton C Miller collection and search for Haynes:

http://memory.loc.gov/service/music/dcmphot/a000/a0275v.jpg