DCM 0420: Anonymous Walking Stick Flute in C

The pommel affixes to the head joint with machine threads. The instrument has an added left thumbhole awkwardly placed too near the B-flat key lever and upper C key tonehole. This appears to be an addition, possibly to raise the pitch of C#.
Instrument type: Walking Stick Flute in C
Medium: Grenadilla(?), nickel silver keys, ferrules, animal horn pommel with ivory or bone.; 90 cm.
Key Holes System: 5 keys, modern post and rod. Two lateral vent holes within wide decorative nickel silver ferrule.
Mark Maximum: No mark.
Condition: All 5 keys have broken springs.
Provenance: Sumner Healey, New York, 7 June 1924. Formerly in the Tolbecque collection. This probably refers to the collection of Auguste Tolbecque, 1830-1919, Niort, France. Tolbecque was a composer, stringed instrument maker, cellist, and collector of musical instruments. In 1879, the Belgian government purchased many instruments from the Tolbecque collection for the Brussels Conservatory. This instrument probably comes from a second collection of instruments which was dispersed in 1922 along with Tolbecque's library. Biographical information on Tolbecque per Elisabeth Bernard, “Auguste Tolbecque,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 29 April 2003)

The Dayton C. Miller collection in the Library of Congress, contains nearly 1,700 flutes and other wind instruments, statuary, iconography, books, music, trade catalogs, tutors, patents, and other materials mostly related to the flute. It includes both Western and non-Western examples of flutes from around the world, with at least 460 European and American instrument makers represented. Items in the collection date from the 16th to the 20th century.