A piano that sailed to Australia with the first British settlers has been returned to home soil 231 years on, to be painstakingly restored in a workshop near Bath.
Dubbed the First Fleet piano, the mahogany instrument has survived (just about) the ravages of the ocean voyage, searing heat once it arrived, not to mention the attention of woodworm over the centuries and the indignity of being stored at one point in a laundry room.
It is cracked and warped but, as the first piano... See More
A piano that sailed to Australia with the first British settlers has been returned to home soil 231 years on, to be painstakingly restored in a workshop near Bath.
Dubbed the First Fleet piano, the mahogany instrument has survived (just about) the ravages of the ocean voyage, searing heat once it arrived, not to mention the attention of woodworm over the centuries and the indignity of being stored at one point in a laundry room.
It is cracked and warped but, as the first piano to be played in Australia, is revered as one of the most treasured instruments in the country. The key aim of the restoration project will be to give it back its original sound and provide a musical link with the 18th-century colonists.
