R E S T O R A T I O N S
carried out in the past by
Grant O’Brien
Free-lance Restorations and Conservation work:
Because I am now
retired from my employment with the University of Edinburgh as Curator/Director
of the Russell Collection and as Reader in the former Faculty of Music, I fill out part my time carrying out free-lance
restorations and
consultations. In the
past I have been engaged both by museums and by public and private bodies to
carry out restorations of early keyboard instruments for them and to give
advice about restoration and environmental control both in museums and in
private collections.
E-mail me about help with restoration or conservation work at
grant.obrien@claviantica.com or contact
me at any of the addresses in:
Contact details.
Restorations and Conservation work:
The Brussels Museum of Musical
Instruments, Brussels, Belgium:
Single-manual harpsichord by Giambattista Boni,
1619; Brussels Museum Number 1603.
5-voet muselar virginal by Ioannes and
Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1604; Brussels Museum Number 2927.
Double-manual harpsichord by Ioannes Couchet,
Antwerp, 1646; Brussels Museum
Number 276.
Double-manual harpsichord by Burkat Shudi and
Johannes Broadwood, London, 1773; Brussels Museum Number 1604.
Museo Nazionale degli Strumenti
Musicali, Rome, Italy
Anonymous single-manual Italian harpsichord with an
enharmonic keyboard, Naples; Rome Museum Number 859.
Anonymous single-manual Italian harpsichord,
Naples, 1630; Rome Museum Number
779.
Single-manual Italian harpsichord, Ignazio
Mucciardi, Naples, 1780; Rome
Museum Number 760.
Schloß Cappenberg, bei Dortmund,
Westfalen, Germany
Double-manual harpsichord by Ioannes Ruckers,
Antwerp, 1618.
Ringve Museum, Trondheim, Norway
Anonymous Italian virginal, ascribed by me to Iosephus
Salodiensis, Venice, c.1560.
Double-manual English harpsichord by Jacobus Kirckman,
London, 1767; RMT Nº 79/12
Anonymous Italian Bentside Spinet. Undated c.1650-1700. Ringve Museum, Trondheim. Inventory No. RMT 67/116.
Double-manual French
Harpsichord attributed to Antoine Watters (Vater?) 1737; RMT Nº 372
Museo Santa
Giulia, Brescia, Italy
Polygonal
virginal by Gianfrancesco Antegnati, Brescia, 1554, on loan from The Ateneo, via Tosi, Brescia to the Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia.
Franco Scala,
Accademia Pianistica, Italy
Single-manual
Italian harpsichord, Francesco Fabbri, Rome, c.1630, property of Franco
Scala, Accademia Pianistica, Imola, Italy.
The Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments
Double-manual French harpsichord by Jean Goermans, Paris,
1764/Pascal Taskin, Paris, 1783-4; Russell Collection Number HD5-JG1764.29.
For
further details of the Goermans/Taskin harpsichord click on the images below: