"Johann Christoff Selboe 9-key: Copenhagen, Denmark maker (1807 – 1873). The flute dates likely from the 1840’s – 50’s. This is a fairly rare example from his shop in Denmark. Selboe was well known in his time for his flutes and oboes, and won awards for his designs. The flute is made of stained cocuswood with a shellac varnish and features high quality craftsmanship on the keywork. Keys are of solid nickel silver. All keys except the C#, C, and B keys have brass tubes for tone holes - a design characteristic similar to many existing period Koch flutes. All block mounts are metal lined to ensure that the wood of the block is stable and the key tolerances do not change, and is another sign of high quality craftsmanship. There is a repaired very tight crack in the headjoint, which is no longer detectable due to re-doing the shellac finish. There is a repaired surface defect to the wood in the right hand joint – this wood grain anomaly was also stabilized with a threaded rod some time ago and is fully stable. The bore is still nice and smooth, and the flute plays strongly. Pitch is A=438 – 448 and it plays solidly at 440 with the head out about a half an inch. It comes with a custom solid Cherry wood case made for the flute. It has all new pads, tenon wrappings, and head cork."