Conservation to what end?

[Dwight A. Newton <DANEWT00@UKCC.uky.edu>]

  Thought I would test the waters of this new list to see how open we
might be to discussion of really basic issues. My interest in historical
instruments is avid, but avocational.
  My first really significant contact with the field of conservation
was in ca. 1975 at a convention of the then fledgling Guild of American
Luthiers. I attended a lecture by Laurence Libin of the Metropolitan
Museum (New York) on conservation and restoration techniques. He
discussed, among other things, a technique of welding the ends of
broken harpsichord strings and using a special lathe to turn the joint
smooth. I was really impressed by the extremes one might go to to deal
with minutia.
  One point Libin made during his talk was that his restoration work
was intended to make an instrument LOOK as perfectly authentic as
possible, without any expectation of it actually being a fully functional
musical instrument. There are differing approaches to this issue at
different museums and with different individual instruments. My
question to MICAT-L is: How do you approach the issue of restoration
of an historical instrument? Is it a living thing to be used, or is
it primarily an historical document from which to learn?

Dwight A. Newton <danewt00@ukcc.uky.edu>