“Glad you’re enjoying and appreciating it! As for the keys, learn to use them for added enjoyment!!!” Jem.
Aye Jem, possibly in time, but I only play hardcore Irish trad. so don’t have a pressing need for keys. I won’t plane off the blocks though as the next owner may be into keys 
Seriously this is a cracking (no pun intended) flute and I think I just lucked out as I have no previous experience with old English flutes. It’s also a little spooky with it’s 19th century little wooden box that you open and take out this old timer. I wonder who has played it before, who the original owner was, what happened to them, di they just die and relatives pass the flute on, if there is any old DNA in the bore 
Do any of you with old Rudalls, Wyldes etc know the full history/provenence of your instruments?
Do any of you with old Rudalls, Wyldes etc know the full history/provenence of your instruments?
Nope. But the instrument can tell you something sometimes (nothing esoteric here!).
My Wylde is in amazingly good conditions, cracks apart I’ve seen flutes just a few years old in far worse conditions. Which means that it wasn’t used much. Also, the pads and cork were not original, and the cracked endcap had glue in it. This means that not too long ago (…40 years? Just a guess) someone had it back in playing conditions. But he didn’t play it much. The headjoint and barrel cracks must be not that old, as they weren’t fixed. Actually I believe that the barrel cracked when the flute was being shipped to me…!
A flute that I bought a few months ago (marked “improved D London”) tells another story. There were soldering traces on some keys, and under the third hole you can see that there used to be two pins, that were removed and the two holes filled with new darker wood. When I removed the cork, I found a long blonde hair stuck in there. My guess is that it was played by a woman with small hands or a little girl, the pins were added to place a key like Siccama did, and some extensions were soldered to the keys so that she could reach them with her short fingers. Then the next owned decided to remove everything…
A friend has an old accordion from New York made in the 30s, he said it was played in ceilis there, and you can actually smell the smoke of cigars from the bellows.
Fascinating, isn’t it?