I've just acquired an old Camac recorder which purports to be
a reproduction of Praetorius's design of 1620 (looks like the
picture but has a much longer windway). But it's made of ebony,
and I wondered if Praetorius could have used that. Ebony is
a tropical wood - was there an established timber trade to the
various regions where ebony species grow at the beginning of
the seventeenth century? And if so, did musical instrument
makers get their hands on it?

I don't recall seeing pictures of musicians with black flutes
from before about 1700. Those in Renaissance paintings are
all the colour of maple or boxwood, or brown-stained.

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