Walking-Stick Flute/Oboe ca. 1750-57 Georg Henrich Scherer German This rare instrument, combining a transverse flute and an oboe in the form of a walking stick, is made of narwhal tusk, a precious material once valued higher than gold and believed to be from the horn of the mythological unicorn. The upper part of the walking stick is fashioned as a transverse flute and the lower part as an oboe. To play the instrument as an oboe, a double reed must be inserted at the lower end and the one key repositioned. Georg Henrich Scherer was the last and most important member of a well-known eighteenth-century family of German woodwind makers. Among his clients was Frederick the Great, who played and owned a small collection of flutes. The king pursued a scientific interest in testing the acoustical attributes of different materials, which may account in part for the use of narwhal tusk. This instrument is said to have been a gift from Frederick to his finance minister, Friedrich von der Horst.