In
the United Kingdom there are ‘Assay Laws’, set down by the government in
the last few hundred years, which restrict the use of the terms 'Silver',
'Gold' and 'Platinum' to items which have passed the quality tests at the
London Assay Office and subsequently received a 'Hallmark'. As there
is only one foreign company (Muramatsu) that has put its instruments through
this procedure we are unable to use the terms above to describe materials
used in flute manufacture without doing so illegally.
In our descriptions of our flutes and head joints we use the terms ‘Solid’, ‘Red’, ‘Yellow’, ‘White’ to give an indication of the kind of base material used.
We are permitted to use the terms ‘silverplated’, ‘gold plated’ and ‘platinum plated’ as these are not restricted by the above laws.