This is an introduction to the proceedings of a symposium held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in conjunction with the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation in December 1983, attended by both museum personnel and private restorers, with definitions and remarks on the relationships between these two fields. The papers discuss the techniques used today and some used in the museum 20 years ago, problems of curatorship, archaeology of musical instruments, etc. (See individual papers abstracted in this issue). The publication also contains a discussion and bibliographies on the construction, conservation and decoration of keyboard and string instruments.