United States · since 1888
William S. Haynes serial numbers
Boston's great flute workshop, with its factory ledger online.
William S. Haynes founded the Boston flute workshop in 1888 (after serving at Boehm's colleague Badger's bench); the factory ledger — 49,592 rows from 1900 to 2008 — is now public on the maker's site. The archive follows the ledger-derived chart and links the ledger itself.
The numbering
- Haynes flute sequence 1900-2008 (republished chart)
Flute — 109 ranges
Haynes has never published the chart on its own site: the 'Serial Numbers' menu item leads to a 404 (re-checked 2026-10-15: haynesflute.com menu; the old wmshaynes.com domain also lacks it). The chart used here is the long-standing Haynes list reproduced by dealers (adams-music, just flutes), 1900-2008, given as the first serial of each year.
Codes, eras and engraving
Wm. S. Haynes factory ledger: description vocabulary (official) — 1900-2005 (records continue fragmentarily to 2008)
The official Haynes serial archive is the factory ledger itself, published as a searchable table with the columns Date / Category / Description / Serial number. The Description column uses the workshop's own abbreviations, explained by the ledger key: L.P. = low pitch, HP = high pitch, 'Regular Model', 'Commercial Model (closed hole, Y arms, C footjoint)', Op./Open G#, Closed/Cl. G#, Db (D flat piccolo or flute), Eb/E Flat soprano flute, Sil. = silver, Band/Bd, Orch/Or., 'French Model' (open holes, pointed keywork), HMFM = handmade French model, HMCH = handmade closed hole, Con. = conical bore piccolo, Cyl. = cylindrical bore piccolo, .016/.018/.014/.012/.010 = tube thickness, TH/THM = super thin wall, 440/442/444/445/435 = pitch specifications, LD = Lewis J. Deveau scale, RW = Robert Winn scale, GW = gold wall riser, 'Gold Emb' = gold embouchure, lip plate and riser, B/Bft = B footjoint, B-C# tr. = B-C# trill, 'Bb to B' = modern style B flat shake key.
| L.P. / LP | Low pitch | |
| HP | High pitch | |
| Regular Model | The workshop's standard model term; it appears in the ledger from 1929 to 1985. | |
| Commercial Model | Closed hole, Y arms, C footjoint. | |
| Op. / Open / OP G# | Open G# key mechanism. | |
| Closed / Cl. / CL G# | Closed G# key mechanism. | |
| Db | D flat piccolo or flute. | |
| Eb / E Flat | E flat soprano flute. | |
| Sil. | Silver. | |
| Band / Bd | Band model. | |
| Orch / Or. | Orchestral model. | |
| French Model / Fr. / Fr. Mod. | Open holes, pointed keywork. | |
| HMFM | Handmade French Model: open holes, pointed keywork, soldered toneholes. | |
| HMCH | Handmade Closed Hole: closed holes, pointed keywork, soldered toneholes. | |
| Con. / Conical | Conical bore piccolo. | |
| Cyl. | Cylindrical bore piccolo. | |
| .016 / .018 / .014 / .012 / .010 | Tube thickness. | |
| TH / THM | Super thin wall, around .010 or .011 tube thickness. | |
| 440 / 442 / 444 / 445 / 435 | Pitch specifications. | |
| LD | Lewis J. Deveau scale. | |
| RW | Robert Winn scale, designed primarily for the German market. | |
| GW | Gold wall riser. | |
| Gold Emb | Gold embouchure, lip plate and riser. | |
| B / Bft | B footjoint. | |
| B-C# tr. | B-C# trill key. | |
| Bb to B | Modern style B flat shake key. | |
| Special Model | The ledger key says to contact Haynes for the interpretation of this entry. |
Haynes model terms and the years they appear in the ledger — 1900-2005
First and last appearance of the main workshop model terms in the official ledger (49 592 rows, 1900-2008): 'L.P. Closed' 1900-1913, 'LP CL G# C Silver' 1913-1930, 'LP CL G# Db Silver' 1915-1930, 'CL G# C Silver' 1930-1948, 'Regular Model' 1929-1985, 'HMF Bft' 1921-1999, 'HMFM' and 'HMFM Bft' 1948-1972, 'HMCH' 1948-1979, 'HMF' 1951-2008. The terms themselves therefore bracket an era: a horn described as 'LP CL G# Db Silver' belongs to the 1915-1930 period and a 'Regular Model' to 1929-1985.
Era markers derived from the ledger's own vocabulary, not a year table: the year comes from the serial number. Numbers are read exactly as printed, and the stray year-like typos in the Date column (entries dated 997, 1022, 1298, 1492, 1824, 2021, 2027, plus 284 rows dated '.') were excluded from the era statistics.
| 'L.P. Closed' | 864 rows; the earliest ledger description in the archive. | |
| 'LP CL G# C Silver' | 3831 rows. | |
| 'LP CL G# Db Silver' | 925 rows. | |
| 'HMF Bft' | 1821 rows; runs through most of the archive. | |
| 'Regular Model' | ||
| 'CL G# C Silver' | 1654 rows. | |
| 'HMFM' / 'HMFM Bft' | ||
| 'HMCH' | ||
| 'HMF' | 833 rows; the term continues past the 2005 end of the main archive. |
Haynes factory ledger (official) — 1900-2008
The maker publishes the workshop ledger itself: 489 rows, 1900-2008, each with date, category, description and serial number.
The year comes from the serial number; the ledger's Description column doubles as a model-era vocabulary. The chart in this archive is derived from this ledger.
Models in the archive
9 models catalogued — Minimal catalogue: only the models the era/decoder layer needs. Full catalogue and prices are chat-4 work.
All William S. Haynes model years →
Questions
Can this archive date William S. Haynes instruments from the serial number?
Yes — the archive covers 1 numbering sequence(s) and 109 dating ranges from 1900 to 2008, compiled from published maker records and reference charts. Every answer states its source and confidence.
Where is the serial number on a William S. Haynes instrument?
For Flutes the common location is on the barrel (head joint) and again on the body — the barrel number rules.
What if my William S. Haynes serial number is not found?
Recheck the characters exactly as marked, including any letters. Letter prefixes often belong to student or stencil lines. Some periods may not be covered yet — every refusal here says why.