Debut of Cooper Scale

Photo from High Flutin'

The annual NFA Convention is a terrific environment for flute makers to present new products.  Convention attendees look forward to visiting booths and "checking out what's new."  At Powell, we premiered a winged headjoint this year,  Turning the clock all the way back to 1974, Powell Flutes attended the NFA Convention in Pittsburgh and premiered their model flute with the Cooper Scale.  In this excerpt from High Flutin', we read former president Ed Machon's account of the event:

Fenwick Smith returned from Germany where he had been studying and performing.  He brought us up to date on the "Cooper Scale," saying it was very well-received in Europe..He explained that Albert Cooper was very co-operative and would give us details and all notes pertaining to the new scale.

This was 1974...What to do?  We sat with the best flute in the world.  Should we risk the time and money necessary to entirely re-vamp the set-up or rest on our laurels?  The decision was quickly made to go all out and have the Cooper Scale flute ready for the NFA convention to be held in August that year.  Two men took over the tooling necessary to convert the scale, and the rest of the shop continued on with business as usual.  The decision to make the scale with drawn tone holes was a difficult one to make as, traditionally, the Powell was always done with the soldered holes.  The "pulling balls" to draw the tone holes out of the silver tubing would be much easier to make than face the uncertainties of gathering stock from our suppliers.  Very little of the tone hole stock used on Powells could be adapted to the new scale.  If I recall correctly, only one tone hole was in the same position as on the Powell.  Needless to say, the scene was bedlam, and from the loud continuous noises, mostly strange, carrying on all day and half the night, a visitor might think we were working on a new atomic weapon.  After what seemed to be an eternity, and a mess of ruined tubing, we had two bodies ready to be keyed up, polished, padded, and tested,  The moment of truth arrived finally, and with a strobe, which replaced our ever-loving "gong," the new baby was tested and found to be nigh on to perfect... All this came together about a week before the convention.

The convention was a "first" for all of us.  Dick Jerome and I, along with Albert Cooper went, as did Bick Brannen and his brother Bob with their wooden, conical bore Boehm flute.  They also helped us at the booth.  That was the first real convention; the one at Anaheim, California in 1973 was poorly attended.  The hours were unreal -- 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, break for lunch, back for another four-hour session, supper if you were lucky, then 8:00 PM to closing.  I recall packing up the flutes at about 10:30 PM, then searching madly for a place still serving meals.  The dining rooms in the hotel shut down about 9:00 PM,  Dick and I ended up having dinner about 11:00 or 11:30 after walking about 8-10 blocks in a not-too-nice area.

Powell #365 - A Platinum Flute for the World's Fair

First Powell Platinum Flute - second from top

In 1938, Verne Powell was commissioned by Engelhard Metals to create a Concert C flute made of platinum for the Engelhard exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair.  Mr. Powell immediately set to the task, and in 1939, he completed Powell #365 – a platinum flute with sterling silver keys.  He engraved the Trylon and Perisphere (the logo for the fair) on the barrel to indicate its unique origin.

One week before the flute was supposed to be delivered to the Fair, William Kincaid (Philadelphia Orchestra, principal flute) came to visit Mr. Powell in his workshop.  Powell asked Kincaid to test the new flute he had made.  Kincaid tried the new flute and was amazed at its fluidity and color.  He offered to purchase the instrument on the spot.  Mr. Powell explained that the flute was to be delivered to the Fair, but that after the show Mr. Kincaid could purchase it. 

As soon as the instrument was back in Boston, Mr. Kincaid picked it up – and from that day until his death in 1967, it was his number one flute. 

When Mr. Kincaid passed away, he left his platinum Powell flute to Elaine Shaffer, a favorite student of his at the Curtis Institute of Music. She went on to become principal flutist with the Houston Symphony and later enjoyed a career as a soloist.  In a tragic turn, Ms. Shaffer passed away in 1973 at age 47 of lung cancer. Kincaid’s platinum flute, along with Shaffer’s 3 other Powell instruments were left to her husband.

Ms. Shaffer’s husband, Efrem Kurtz, was a conductor (Houston Symphony) and understood the value of these flutes.  He kept them in his possession until 1986 when he put them up for auction at Christie’s auction house in New York City.

The auction was held in November and was attended by many fine musicians.  The first silver flute offered at the auction was sold for $4,400 to a professional orchestral flutist, and the second silver flute went to the (then) President of the New York Flute Club for $4,950.  The 14k gold flute was sold to an anonymous bidder for $27,500.

When the bidding for the Platinum flute began, there were only two parties involved - a New Hampshire antiques dealer and a well-known collector of antiques in New York City who was also a flutist.  The auction also drew some very notable celebrated figures, including Andy Warhol, who was a friend of the New York City-area collector.  As the bidding increased to $80,000, the New Hampshire-area dealer dropped out, but a yet another collector stepped in his place.

The antiques collector from New York City won the auction with a closing bid of $170,000.  He paid a total of $187,000 with the buyer’s premium and a record for the purchase of any flute.  Today’s equivalent is $356,000.  At the time, a new platinum flute would have cost $16,000 – today a platinum flute starts at $36,000.

After the sale, the winning bidder said, “I own a dozen great flutes, but this one is the best there is.  If you’re a collector, the greatest in its field is the only thing worth having, and you have to expect to pay well for it.”

In the recent past, Powell #365 was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of their Musical Instruments collection but is now in the hands of a private owner.