Thomas Stanesby Jr

Thomas Stanesby Jr (1692—1754) was an English instrument-maker from London, son of Thomas Stanesby Sr. (c.1668—1734), who specialized in flutes, recorders, and oboes. Along with Peter Bressan (1663—1731), Stanesbys woodwind instruments are some of the finest surviving examples of English Baroque, displayed in museum collections and copied by "periodic" flute-makers today. Surviving works include 38 flutes (including 25 made of ivory), 16 recorders, five oboes, a pair of flutes d'amore, and one 1747 bassoon. Thomas began apprenticing with his father in 1706. In 1713, after his 'indentured servitude' expired, Stanesby Jr established an independent workshop over the Temple Exchange in Fleet Street near St Dunstan-in-the-West. He signed the instruments as STANESBY IUNIOR until around 1732. After Stanesby Sr retired, Thomas embraced the STANESBY LONDON label. Circa 1732, sensing the impending eclipse of the recorder in professional music, Thomas Stanesby published 'A New System of the Flute a Bec or Common English Flute,' advocating for superiority of Tenor Recorders in C and presenting a "full and perfect" fingering chart for them. Stanesby's later builds tend to simplify intricate Baroque exteriors of recorders, omitting the bulbous bottoms in favor of a slender profile with a foot piece, for instance. The builder also embraced the growing demand for transverse flutes and began producing them. In 1734, Thomas Jr. inherited all his father's tools and family seal ring. He apprenticed two instrument-makers at his shop, William Sheridan and Caleb Gedney (who inherited master's tools after Stanesby passed away).