United Kingdom · since 1821
Rudall Carte serial numbers
London's Boehm flute workshop, read from workshop addresses.
Rudall, Carte & Co. brought the Boehm flute to Britain and built flutes in London for over a century. Early instruments are dated by the engraved workshop address; the short number list here covers the Rudall & Rose years.
The numbering
- Rudall & Rose numbering 1822-1847 (dealer republication)
Flute — 26 ranges
Rudall & Rose was the London firm that became Rudall Carte & Co. The table used here comes from a dealer republication of the firm's own production counts (it carries a '# made that year' column) and covers 1822-1847 only; for Rudall Carte & Co. (from the 1870s) no serial chart was found, only the 19th-century sales data collected by McGee.
Codes, eras and engraving
Model names and shop addresses rather than codes — 1821-1950s
Rudall Carte & Co. instruments are identified by the shop name and the address engraved on the body and by the model (the 1867 system, the Rockstro models and the later Rudall Carte lines). The engraved addresses change as the firm moved, which brackets the era; the number is read against the published ranges.
Era marker at reported confidence: the engraved shop address places the period rather than a year, and the model name identifies the line.
| engraved shop name and address on the body | The address text is the era marker used by dealers and collectors; no letter or dated code is documented. |
Models in the archive
6 models catalogued, 6 with a basis-labeled price — Rudall Carte (London) sold key systems rather than a numbered model range: old system, Carte 1851, Carte 1867, Radcliff, Rockstro and Boehm. Rows follow those systems, with dates from oldflutes.com (which prints the patent years and the 1894 Radcliff circular) and McGee's study of the Radcliff model. Model-era code-tables for this brand should key on these system names.
All Rudall Carte model years →
Questions
Can this archive date Rudall Carte instruments from the serial number?
Yes — the archive covers 1 numbering sequence(s) and 26 dating ranges from 1822 to 1847, compiled from published maker records and reference charts. Every answer states its source and confidence.
Where is the serial number on a Rudall Carte instrument?
For Flutes the common location is on the barrel (head joint) and again on the body — the barrel number rules.
What if my Rudall Carte 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.