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instruments and accessories in the collection and the high proportion of exhibits of outstanding importance places it amongst the world’s major collections. Since 1970 conservation work has been carried out and extensive documentation has been built up. A few instruments were restored to playing order in the 1970s and have been used in lectures, concerts and recordings. The Museum has published a series of full-size plans of instruments since 1974, and in 1982, with the aid of the Radcliffe Trust, Part I of the Catalogue, European Wind Instruments, by E A K Ridley. Part 1a, Addenda, was completed and published in 1998 and Part II, Keyboard Instruments, in 2000. Besides contributing to the education of students, the Museum has provided tours and research facilities, joined in collaborative research projects and hosted international conferences. In 2005 a re-structuring led to its incorporation, with the Department of Portraits and Performance History, in the RCM Centre for Performance History (CPH). Further information on Donaldson, his collection, catalogue and museum, can be found in Wells 2007a, pp.102–25, and on the RCM Museum in Wells 2007b (full titles of all references cited in this volume are in the Bibliographical References, pp.212–15). The Catalogue of European Stringed Instruments This volume describes 129 instruments of which 84 were given by Donaldson. His interest was primarily in European stringed instruments and in those of beautiful form and decoration; he also collected the curious and unusual. He may have felt that fine instruments of the violin family should not be in a museum since they are barely represented in his collection. It contains the earliest surviving baryton, and one of the world’s most important collections of early guitars, including the instrument by Dias, believed to be the earliest surviving guitar; investigation this year has shown that it came from Donaldson and might formerly have been in the Medici collection. He also collected early decorated cases, of which two survive (Guitar case, French, c.1700, RCM 92, and Violin case, French, 18th century, RCM 30). Details of these are obtainable from the Museum and will be published in due course. Catalogue Part IV, Bows for European Stringed instruments (Knast 2007) can be found on the CPH website (www.cph.rcm.ac.uk). Loaned instruments are not included in the catalogue. In recent years the display has benefited from the loan by Adam Whone of an interesting violin (by William Prior, 1710) that is in baroque condition, with the front detached; this is illustrated and described in Milnes 2001, pp.398 & 403–4. Due to the lack of earlier accession records, persistence has been required to establish the provenance of some instruments and a few remain unknown. Apart from references in periodicals, correspondence and internal reports, the main sources of information from before 1964 are the proof copy of The Catalogue of the Donaldson Museum (1896), with annotations made in 1943 by Dyson, his checklist (Dyson 1952) and the College Gift Book. In 1964 I instituted the Accession Register. In recent years the typescript checklist made by A H Frere (1926), and kindly
returned to the RCM by Paul James, has provided significant new information, and in 2004 Michael, John and Anthony Mott generously presented their copy of Donaldson’s catalogue to the Museum. Research this year has established the date of Donaldson’s second gift as 1899 (not 1900, as stated in earlier catalogue volumes) and of the earliest copy of his catalogue as 1896 (not 1894 as previously stated). See also Conventions, p.xi.
Contributors and photograph credits Measurements, descriptions and the paragraphs on construction and alterations in the Commentaries were provided by Christopher Nobbs; also much of the Conventions text. The remaining sections and Commentaries were written by Elizabeth Wells, who also edited the volume. In the descriptions of a few instruments she added further text, mainly based on earlier documentation written for the Museum by Stephen Barber, Charles Beare, Ian Harwood, and Dietrich Kessler (see also Acknowledgements). The Bibliographical References were compiled by Geoffrey Govier and Elizabeth Wells, incorporating an earlier index by Keane Ridley and Peter Horton. The photographs were taken over many years, most being by Alfred Barnes; others were taken by Paul Collen, Ian Harwood, Christopher Nobbs and Elizabeth Wells, and the X-ray images by William Debenham. Photographs of three instruments, RCM 39, 347 and 350, are reproduced by courtesy of J & A Beare, and the portraits of John Thomas and Sir George Donaldson by kind permission of the Royal Society of Musicians and Michael Mott respectively. The photographs were assembled by Paul Collen, Andrew Earis, Geoffrey Govier, Jenny Nex and Elizabeth Wells. Computerization was assisted in 2004–5 by Andrew Earis; assistance with copy-editing was given by Jenny Nex and Andrew Earis under the direction of Paul Banks, who oversaw the publication of the volume. The indexes were compiled by Jenny Nex.
Acknowledgements The preparation of this volume of the catalogue has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) through its Project Fund scheme for higher education museums, galleries and collections. Its publication has been made possible by grants from the Leche Trust and the Radcliffe Trust and a donation from Mrs Morella Cottam. The College acknowledges with gratitude this generous support. The grant from the AHRC also covered an associated condition audit, conservation work (including cleaning, repairs and stringing where appropriate) and further photography of the stringed instruments; in addition, online versions of the earlier volumes were produced for ix