For two seasons I played in the Teatro Colon, the famous opera house, which is to this day the most gorgeous hall, visually and acoustically, that I've played in. It was during that second year that I basically taught myself to play baroque oboe, pretty much in complete isolation from the early music world except for records and the occasional European group on tour. No, I took the occasional lesson from players like Michel Piguet and Jimmy Caldwell, but never formally studied with anyone. I ran across and took what I needed. My playing was shaped much more by having to match and blend with the fabulous players of other early instruments who were here than it was by other oboists.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
You mentioned that you play Classical and Romantic oboes as well. Well, we know relatively little about the first generation of three part oboes. They were probably developed at the Hotteterre workshop in Versailles, perhaps at the request of Lully, who needed a flexible wind instrument to add to his larger ensembles, what we now call an orchestra. This was an incredibly fast maturation. When Purcell wrote his first oboe solo in Come Ye Sons of Art, the instrument already had all the lyrical and pastoral associations it had for Ravel.