Hi there,
I saw this flute for sale on e-Bay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350433919518
The seller seems to know nothing about it. I guess people among you will have some ideas about what it is. The seller claims it is an old flute. On the only picture we have, the flute doesn’t seem that old to me.
Peter
It is a typical late C19th or early C20th German or Bohemian made “nach Meyer” style 8-key flute. It is very unlikely to have been made later than WW2 or before c 1875. If it is a good example in well-restored playing condition and plays acceptably at A=440Hz (the overall length given suggest it may well be OK at 440), it ought to fetch between £200-350, maybe. But we don’t know that much from the listing. If it needs work, I wouldn’t pay more than £100 for it. It does look in decent condition from that photo, and the description, such as it is, is encouraging, but one would need to ask for better pics and more info before laying out more than £100 on it as a gamble. I see the price is already well above that!
The G# key is straight, how uncommon is this?
The oblique, 45-degree cross G# is by far the most common arrangement on these, Lorenzo, as you know, but I have seen quite a few with straight G#s before, also several with separate foot joints rather than one piece lower-body + foot, as per stereotype. The end caps and the foot key touches are distinctive enough.
£390 
No Way!!!
compliment to the winner! if s-he want to send me some money too I’ll not regret!
I say that it worthy no more than £120…
Is it time to sell my german flute? 
£390 so far!!! 6 hours to go!
My experience of ebay is that there is a flurry of bidding (not from me!) at the last minute, I wouldn’t be surprised if it went for £500 with this level of interest.
I think it’s worth nearer the £120 mark if it all works.
I don’t think you guys have got this right. It’s not a great posting on eBay - you can’t see all the details you’d like, and the seller doesn’t seem to know anything about the flute, as has been pointed out. However, It looks to be in full playing order. Someone has made it a custom fit case, so I presume that whoever owned it was playing it and taking it out regularly. For an old, decently made, working flute, if that’s what it is, £500 doesn’t seem like a lot of money to me. Where else are you going to get an 8-key in working order? Otherwise, you’d have to find one not in working order and have it done up, at some reasonable expense.
I still wouldn’t ask or pay more than £350 for an authoritatively, reliably attested, really good playing example of a “nach Meyer” - it is too easy to get hold of them cheaply (unrestored) for them to be worth more than that. (Buy for £50-100, restoration c £150 if no major repairs… but of course a gamble on whether any given example will prove worthwhile, hence a premium on ones that come out right…) Also, you can get better quality other types of flute for that sort of money or not much more, though admittedly not full 8-keyers in playing condition - which is why I work in that field when I can!
Plus, as you say and as I pointed out before, it isn’t well advertised - far too little information to make reliable judgments from and I would not make those assumptions you mention with my money - though I tend to agree you are probably right, someone likely did this flute up before the current owner bought it, though we don’t know how competently!
And non expert people won’t be able to tell the conditions of a flute. On the description of the german flute I bought years ago it said that it had a repaired crack and nothing else. The crack was repaired really badly and there where i think three almost invisible others. At least I didn’t pay much, and the flute is one of the quite good ones apparently, though still not in working conditions.
£390 is way too much…
This one’s only £21 (so far) I’d be interested to see what this goes for.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/antique-wooden-flute-/380311650630?pt=UK_Woodwind_Instruments&hash=item588c574146
That one looks a lot like one I’ve got, to me … Whaddya think, Jem? 
If the flute is as dodgy as the vendor’s spelling and attitude…
I can’t see the picture too well on my phone, but from what I recall of perusing it when my searches trawled it up the other night, it is a classic ‘nach Meyer’.
Even very good ones, like mine, aren’t THAT good. At least, I wouldn’t take one over any of the modern-maker flutes I’ve tried. I just wanted to give keys a go.
Mine is in very good shape, with minor repairs, and plays well at A440. I paid about $350 US (220 GBP) for it, if that helps anyone.
£410 only one more bid.
i posted about my nach Meyer somewhere else, but i bought it off ebay for $91. it had 2 cracks in it, one a pretty nasty one across the bottom of the embouchure cut and one through the barrel, but i paid Jon C to fix it for me and now it’s a pretty good flute–good volume, all the keys work, looks great! 
an 8-key session-worthy flute, all for less than $300…
cheers,
eric
gosh that looks familiar. 