A large number of historic musical instruments that survive in museums have been drastically transformed through a process of ‘recycling’. Although often leading to the loss or distortion of original features, these ‘recycling’ transformations can also reveal a wealth of information about the history of these artefacts and how they were valued and treated by their various owners and users during their lifetime.

This book presents and analyses several representative cases of ‘recycled’ stringed instruments focusing on the Hans Hahn collection, the first major collection of musical instruments that was acquired by the Deutsches Museum in 1906. Using a combination of object-based and archival research, the book provides a comprehensive insight into the foundation and development of the musical instrument department at the Deutsches Museum in the beginning of the twentieth century while discussing issues of provenance and authenticity of historic instruments.