Music museum receives 'oldest instrument' on 40th birthday

Art 23 Mar 11 Oxford University's Bate Collection of Musical Instruments has received its oldest item by two centuries, as it celebrates its 40th anniversary this month. The museum of period instruments has received a 13th century deer-bone whistle, which was bequeathed from the estate of Mr Peter Henderson who died in 2010. The Bate has also bought a Moog theremin, which is the newest item in the collection. Museum manager Andrew Lamb said: 'It is fitting that as the Bate Collection reaches its milestone fortieth birthday, the range of ages of our instruments has been increased by at least 200 years and the whistle is now on display in our upper gallery. 'At the Bate we have an open access policy whereby if an instrument is robust enough, there is no reason why it should not still be played - but given the age and condition of the whistle, we will have to make an exception in this case!' He added: 'The whistle was made from the metatarsal of a red deer, and the block of the mouthpiece would have been made of wood. Experts at the Ashmolean Museum have estimated this was from the 12th or 13th Century, but without radiocarbondating it's hard to tell. Similar whistles have been dated thousands of years earlier.