Materials, mechanisms and makers contribute to the value of flutes. These 1800s instruments are (from left to right): A small one key Flute called a Piccolo, a one key Flute, a very valuable example in ebony by the famous maker Thomas Stanesby Jr., an ivory and silver flute by Louis Drouet, a glass flute with silver fittings by Claude Laurent and an early wood model by Theobald Boehm with the modern ring-key mechanism that he developed in 1832.
Flute collectors can happily devote years to discovering all the materials from which flutes have been crafted---boxwood, ebony, silver, gold, platinum and even glass. The design of the modern flute, however, has changed little since 1832, when German instrument maker Theobald Boehm invented the present system of 14 holes controlled by nine fingers. Boehm’s own flutes, marked with his name, are prizes but so are many of the earlier types, distinguished by wide variations in the number and placement of holes and keys.
