Old C.G. Conn parts

A skilled technician would be able to fabricate a new key and posts, or modify existing ones to fit. The odds of finding original parts for this instrument would be astronomical.
 
The other thing is that the majority of Conn instruments made prior to about 1917 are high pitch, unless otherwise marked. "High pitch" is an intonation standard that's incompatible with today's standard, which is low pitch. The upthrust is major intonation problems if you play with someone with a modern instrument. You also can't make a high pitch woodwind into low pitch. Not that you'd want to actually play a flute like this one. Well, maybe to show it off.

I don't necessarily have a problem with dating this flute to 1898/9, if not a year or two earlier. The National Music Museum has a big-time Conn researcher on staff and if she says that a flute with sn 520 = 1892-1895 and sn 5448 = 1902, it sounds like they're using the reed mouthpiece serial number chart, so you can come up with 1898/9. It also helps that the engraving matches up with saxophones from the same time.

I have no idea how much one of these is worth, primarily because I haven't seen enough of them. I can say, though, that old doesn't necessarily mean valuable. It could just be a pretty art piece to hang on the wall.
 
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