The sound of the 1700s will fill the Yorkshire Museum's Tempest Anderson Hall tomorrow (11th), in a 7.30pm concert to celebrate the restoration of a special York harpsichord.

The instrument once belonged to Tempest Anderson (1846 - 1913), the leading York citizen whose name the hall bears, and was made by the York instrument maker Thomas Haxby in 1777.

York group Concert Royal will recreate the sounds of Haxby's time in an evening of 18th century music by Handel, English and Yorkshire composers.

This will be the first time the harpsichord has been played in a public performance since its restoration earlier this year. The harpsichord was restored for the museum's exhibition, Dust Off The Dodo - Fabulous Finds That Time Forgot, as one of the outstanding treasures from York Museums Trust's collections.

Haxby was a renowned York instrument-maker, based in Blake Street, and he patented a new mechanism for the harpsichord in 1771, which he used in the 1777 instrument. He was employed to repair and maintain the organ in York Minster and was a member of the Minster Choir and a soloist for nearly 46 years.

Katy Turner, curator of social history at York Museums Trust, says: "We had the harpsichord restored because Haxby was an outstanding provincial instrument maker of his time, and the harpsichord is a unique survival of an instrument of this type incorporating the developments described in Haxby's patent."

The harpsichord has been restrung with brass and iron music wires that are historically accurate. Its plectra - which pluck the strings to produce the harpsichord's sound - were replaced using black turkey quills, and the instrument now produces a sound as close as possible to how it would have sounded when made by Haxby.

Peter Harrison, Concert Royal director, says: "This has been a really important project for Concert Royal; it's fantastic that this harpsichord has been restored.

"We've tried to tailor the programme to include as much appropriate music as possible, so we're including music by James Nares, who was organist at York Minster at the time Thomas Haxby was working, and by Dr Edward Miller, who was organist at Doncaster Parish Church in the second half of the 18th century.

"We can be almost certain that this music would have been played on this harpsichord 200 years ago and it is likely that Thomas Haxby would have played it."

John Treherne will play the harpsichord in tomorrow's concert, accompanied by flautist Peter Harrison, cellist Rachel Gray and soprano Margarette Ashton.

Tickets cost £5, on 01904 650333.

Updated: 15:31 Thursday, September 09, 2004