Much of the summer and into Fall of 2025 was spent working on a single manual harpsichord, Longman & Broderip #660, 1787. You can find its lineage in the online Boalch database. This beauty came to Lichtfield Connecticut from London not long after it was made. The names of owners and those who have worked on it can be found on the lowest key.

L&B #660 had been restored by Paul Irvin some 30 years ago, and was due for more love. It came to me after spending a short time in another restoration shop, which had  restrung the two 8’s registers in non-historic wire and quilled the two 8′ jacks with black delrin. The 4′ had not been  installed/strung by either Irvin or the more recent shop. Note that there is not and never has been a buff type of stop.

Time had taken its toll on the wood of the case and trim moldings. A hinge had broken, the keyboard showed a checkered history of replacement keytops and…well, let’s just say again that I spent much time working on the instrument from June through September!

I restrung the instrument with Stephen Birkett’s historic wire after the two of us analyzed the instrument, reviewed the original stamped (English system) gauge marks on the nuts and determined what was a historical stringing, but also taking into account the age of the structure.

The greatest challenge was getting the non-functioning machine stop working, in particular threading the string through the angled hole in the spine!

The pedal is not original but is an excellent replica. The register guides and jacks are also non-original. I have found that these parts of antique harpsichords are particularly fragile.