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Abbreviation	Astor
Surname	Astor
Given Name
Dates	1752–1813
Provenance	Germany, London
Notes	George Astor (1752-1813) arrived in London from Germany by 1778 and established himself as a flute maker. By the mid-1790s he had vastly expanded his business to manufacturing, making and selling instruments of all kinds, but specially wind and keyboard instruments. His range of goods is illustrated by his detailed catalog dated 1799, in which the following entries are relevant for our purposes: A Flute, tipp’d with Ivory, 6 silver Keys, and extra Joints / Ditto, 5 silver Keys / Ditto, 4 ditto / Ditto, 6 Brass ditto, and extra Joints / Ditto, 5 ditto / Ditto, 4 ditto / Ditto, French flagelet … The 'dittos', employed to save typesetting costs, are difficult to understand at first sight. But these entries show that Astor was selling … recorders at the normal level, presumably alto, as well as a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and octave higher (Lasocki 2012).