Mr. Baines, the most accomplished of our writers on instruments and certainly the most indefatigable, modestly describes his book as a 'pictorial museum...intended primarily for collectors and curators who are not already specialists in musical instruments". No doubt it will be very useful for these gentlemen [snort]; but it will also be welcomed by musicians and music-lovers in general, not only for its splendid series of photographs but also for the precise description of the instruments displayed and for the lucid narrative which outlines their development...