Rare ebony flute from the Paris workshop of JOSEPH BAUMANN ( 1790 - 1830 ) , replacement silver key, otherwise all original.
 
The “New Langwill” has a short report on the maker, citing one flute plus other woodwinds.
Phillip Young's listing notes only two other flutes by this maker, both of them in boxwood.
I believe one other Baumann flute lives in Ohio.
This is the second of two flutes I own by the maker, the other a pristine ebony instrument with five keys.
Which means that flutes by this maker are somewhat rare.
 
*** Please note that the head section does have an ancient socket fissure, maybe 80 - 85 mm long.  It's our experience that most restorers address the crack by drilling holes to the exterior, screwing in several steel pins and then plug the holes so as to hide the "repairs".   Regretfully, we often see woodwinds with these repairs where the stress of the wood travels to the other side of the joint. And the instrument then cracks on the opposite side of the section.  
Not, in our opinion, a good repair.   
A better method, we believe, is to not drill, not cut the wood anywhere.  It's not always possible to do it, but a thin wrap of carbon filament can be fastened to the exterior of the flute and still leave everything original, all wood intact.     And so we have done on this rare flute. Given the age of the crack, it's not been possible to fill it and make it disappear.  But we "banded" it to the exterior and have filled where required.  The work's been done several months ago and we're happy to report total stability and no air leaks.
 
The flute is part of a small collection of French instruments that I've acquired  over the years, which means I may offer to sell a few more in the upcoming months.  
Flute questions? Write me! Always glad to hear from flute people!
 
**GR/Wichita
 
HG