The current project is a very interesting one. I am in the process of completing a harpsichord – another Kirckman double – which was started 50 years ago by Stephen Barber. He went on to become a highly respected lute maker but it seems that he started his career with this harpsichord which he never finished. It was put into storage as a retirement project but sadly he died before he could get back to it and so it was sold by his widow and ended up with me. Apart from some water damage to one corner, some missing chips of veneer and some woodworm in the tail corner of the bottom it is much as he left it and the quality of his workmanship is clear. The veneering is beautifully done, there are some lovely crisp mouldings and all the joints are neat and snug. And of course it is all very dry. Stephen was copying the 1777 harpsichord in Fenton House which was being restored at the time by Derek Adlam at Finchcocks. That had no bottom FF# and no provision for transposition, and as this is to be a useful instrument I have departed from that design whilst using most of what Stephen had already made. I have also changed the internal structure so as to counteract the tendency to cheek disease that comes to these harpsichords with age.