The csakan, in effect a keyed recorder, first appeared around 1807 in Budapest. The instrument’s invention is attributed to the Hungarian, virtuoso flute player Anton Haberle; but Ernest Kraehmer (1795-1837) is the first early-romantic composer to assemble a formidable catalogue of csakan works in various forms.  Initially the instrument was equipped with a d# key (as on the older transverse flute) and had a range of 2 octaves and a fifth corresponding to the notation c'-g''' but sounding ab'-eb'''', which is to say that the Csakan was considered a transposing instrument in A-B. The narrow bore permits the csakan a full fourth in tonal range beyond that of a Baroque recorder.

By 1815 up to 13 keys might be added, along with a tuning-slide and a device for narrowing the thumb-hole. By c.1820, instrument manufacturers provided csakan modelled after other woodwind such as the oboe and clarinet. Such csakans had keys for g#, f, f#, bb, a b/c trill key, a low d# and a low c# … Some csakans had up to ten keys and a range extending to a sounding g' thanks to an extended key. Some csakans featured a narrow thumb-hole, which could be left open for overblowing. A number of manufacturers made csakans and flûtes douces, amongst them Carl Doke, Martin Schemmel, Hell, Kämpffe, Stephan Koch, Nielson, Franz Schöllnast, Johann Ziegler and Julies Heinrich Zimmermann. Tutors for the instrument were published by Koehler, Koch, Krähmer and Barth, amongst others.

The csakan continued to be played until the turn of the 20th century, as evidenced by instruments by Koehler (1880), Barth (1910), by which time it had become an instrument in C, with or without keys. The firm Conrad Mollenhauer made csakans and flageolets in the 19th century (Feider, 1994), not making recorders as such until after World War II. An 1899 catalogue by the Leipzig instrument-maker Julius Heinrich Zimmermann advertises csakans without keys, with one key and with six keys (see Catalogue; repr. Reyne 1987: 5; Betz 1992: 48, fig. 26). Thus a tradition in manufacturing of recorders existed long before the commonly-supposed rebirth of the instrument in the 20th century as an old instrument for early music.

From the turn of the century until the 1930s, the csakan was associated in Germany with the Schulflöte and the Wienerflageolett, corresponding to an instrument in D with only 6 fingering holes and with anything from one to eight keys but no thumb-hole.  Tis Csakan has no thumb hole, six fingr holes and eight keys.  It seems to be made of rosewood. It still plays sweetly. It comes with a fitted leather case