V Kohlert Sons 8-Key, D (Low Pitch)

A solid restoration candidate with good bones. The flute plays well and produces a nice, deep sound, though the long C key is broken and will need to be refashioned. Some of the body rings are a little loose, and the instrument could benefit from an overall clean-up, polish, and likely a repad. The headjoint seals well.

Stamped "Low Pitch," this flute is optimized for a lower pitch standard around A=430 to 432 Hz, consistent with the Continental European pitch conventions of its era. Post-mounted eight-key configuration in what appears to be blackwood. A worthwhile project for anyone interested in restoring an old Continental classical flute at a low-pitch standard.

About the Maker

V. Kohlert & Sons (V. Kohlert Söhne) was a prominent woodwind manufacturing firm based in Graslitz, a town in the Bohemian region that was part of Czechoslovakia during the interwar period and is now Kraslice in the Czech Republic. The Kohlert workshop has roots stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century and became well known for producing a wide range of woodwinds, including clarinets, oboes, and flutes. The firm was one of several respected makers operating in the Graslitz area, which was a major center of musical instrument production in Central Europe for generations. The "Czecho-Slovakia" stamping with the hyphen suggests this instrument dates from the period between the founding of the Czechoslovak state in 1918 and the mid-twentieth century, though Kohlert's manufacturing tradition extends earlier than that. After World War II and the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland, members of the Kohlert family relocated to West Germany and continued instrument making there.