Well Described Flutina

There's a well described Flutina on Ebay at the moment.

Usually these are sold by non-experts, but this one is clearly being sold by someone who knows exactly what he or she is dealing with.

Flutina's are very attractive early French accordions - this one would have been made around mid 1800s.

Most flutinas are either plain black or brown wood and many have decorative wood inlay. This one is very rare as it is black ebonised wood with the top all covered in colourful enamel and brass inlay (sometimes known as boulle after Charles Andre Boulle - this is usually brass and tortoiseshell but in the case of this flutina it is brass and enamel).

These instruments were often played by Victorian ladies.

The artwork is beautiful. It was almost entirely black when it arrived but I have given it a polish and all the brass and inlay is now looking lovely and almost gleaming! The brass is finely etched but the photo may not be detailed enough to show this. The enamel work is in red, blue, green, pink and yellow and as far as I can see none of the brass or enamel inlay is missing.

There are 22 keys - 13 of them are currently missing the moter of pearl tops.

Sound: Not all the notes play. All but two appear to move freely. You get a different  sound on push and pull on almost all of the notes but some are weak. It is easy to open and see inside: one reed looks fragile and I think the tongue might break off, another is currently held in place by sellotape!   
Compression - is not very good. The bellows are beautiful with silver background and green and red patterns edged in black that has become very scuffed. There are some leaks at the corners.

Bass - there are two bass notes - one has a pretty blue enamel button - the other is missing.

Check out the Flutina category for more flutina goodness.

Link: Ebay auction - Enamel Flutina

Update: I'm surprised that this attracted no bid whatsoever. Maybe the starting price of £99 put people off, even though it's definitely worth that much.