ABSTRACT
Curators of working collections walk a tightrope, balancing public access with the obligation to preserve. Historic stringed keyboard instruments kept in playing condition, because of their complex actions and tensioned wooden structures, are among those objects most vulnerable to damage by unfavourable environmental conditions or misuse. These risks are magnified for instruments played and displayed in non-museum settings such as music conservatories or historic houses open to the public. Fenton House, a seventeenth-century property owned and administered by the National Trust in Northwest London, is precisely such a setting: apt and enchanting, but also problematic. It has, since 1952, housed the Benton Fletcher Collection consisting of twenty early keyboard instruments. The majority of these, including harpsichords, virginals, spinets, pianos, and clavichords dating from between 1540 and 1925, are maintained in playing order and used on a regular basis. This study will focus on the approaches to access and conservation that have been developed for the Collection and some of the difficulties that have been encountered along the way. The reasoning and philosophy behind the care of this collection will also be discussed in view of the ongoing and contentious debate over whether or not to restore and use historic instruments.
