Term introduced in the 20th century for instruments that had become obsolete but later were reintroduced as copies based on historical models. Some 19th-century antiquarians essayed earlier music on harpsichords, lutes, viols, recorders, and other types that had fallen out of production, for example in concerts organized by François-Joseph Fétis at the Paris Conservatoire from the mid-1830s, by Prince Albert at the court of Queen Victoria in 1845, and later by Edward John Payne and A.J. Hipkins in London, Paul de Wit in Leipzig, and the Mozart Symphony Club in New York. Better to serve such practical needs and to meet demand from collectors, replicas and modernized versions of old instruments were occasionally made at that time. Obsolete instruments also reappeared in new guises in the course of 19th-century nationalistic folk revivals, as in the case of German lute-guitars and the decorative, French Baroque-inspired ivory cornemuses produced by the obscure P. Gaillard. Despite the general inaccuracy of their portrayals of instruments, Pre-Raphaelite artists were influential in heightening awareness of rebecs, psalteries, portative organs, and other obsolete instruments. Newly designed harpsichords by Érard and Pleyel were showcased at the ...
