[3] In addition to actual instruments, the museum displayed numerous images and miscellaneous artefacts related to the history of pianos and their manufacture.
[3] The collection was started in 1944 by Charles F. Colt, whose family fortune came by way of constructing prefabricated housing.
[3][6][7] Colt began his collection with the purchase of an 1827 Broadwood square piano, which cost the sum of £6.
[3] Construction was underway in 1994 to create more appropriate space for housing the instruments, as many were difficult to access due to area limitations.
[3] The Colt Collection maintained a policy of tightly controlled viewing and playing access, largely in response to damage caused by the public to the historical instruments found in the Fenton House.
On 11 January 2019 the Department of Culture Media and Sport issued a press release announcing that: Mahoon’s ‘double-manual harpsichord’, built in 1738, has been blocked from export by Michael Ellis, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism, to provide an opportunity to keep it in the country.
As well as its significance in the history of British keyboard instrument making, it is beautiful in its own right.Mahoon was well-known for such luxurious harpsichords to the extent that the famous print by his contemporary, William Hogarth, in ‘The Rake’s Progress’ series, depicts Handel playing a harpsichord by Mahoon, while accompanying the Bolognese castrato singer, Carlo Farinelli.