Van Heerde flute d'amour

This model is made after an original found in the Gemeente Museum in The Hague. The original is made of ebony, and plays at a pitch of A=415 as an instrument in B natural. It is stamped 'VAN HEERDE' and can probably be attributed to Jan van Heerde, an Amsterdam flute maker active in the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The van Heerde family were active as woodwind instrument makers in Amsterdam for three generations beginning around 1670. The style of ornamental turning used on the flute, as well as the fact that Jan van Heerde died in 1750, leads one to believe that this instrument was made between 1730 and 1750.
The proportions of the division of this flute's parts, as well as the only other surviving van Heerde traverso (a standard one, in d) are similar to other early four-part flutes such as J. Denner and I.H. Rottenburg. In comparison with later four-part traversos, all of these flutes have a relatively long headjoint. This unusual division probably stems from an earlier, three-part design of the Baroque traverso.

Learn more about the baroque flute d'amour and its repertoire (pdf).