William Morris had taken a keen interest in old music and had supported its main advocate and practitioner in England, Arnold Dolmetsch. Morris had encouraged Dolmetsch to build his first harpsichord. In September 1896 Dolmetsch came to Kelmscott House with a pair of sixteenth-century virginals and played old English music as Morris lay dying. The next year Dolmetsch made a clavichord, which Burne-Jones decorated for his daughter Margaret. Burne-Jones designed several pianos himself, turning away from the large dimensions and elaborate curves of contemporary instruments, and looking back to the simple, angular shapes of eighteenth-century harpsichords and their predecessors. Expertise quote from 'I turned it into a palace' Sir Sydney Cockerell and the Fitzwilliam Museum Incribed on the lid: CLAVIS . CORDIUM and MI . QUO. LAETER . QUOVE. . PLOREM . INDIT . ARTIFEX . SONOREM . ME . MUSARUM . PRISCUM . FLOREM . MUSA . MORTE . SUSCITAT . RURSUS . ERGO . VOX . DESUUETA . SONAT . PLORANS . SONAT . LAETA . QUAN ~ DOCUNQUE . MARGARETA . CLAVI . CHORDUM . RESERAT . and MARGARETA and inscribed under the lid: arnold . dolmensch . me . fecit . londini . mdcccxcvii . no. io .
W J MacKail, Burne Jones' son-in-law commissioned Dolemtsch to make the clavichord and then asked Burne Jones to decorate it. It was convenient for Burne Jones to take his daughter's name and allude to the legend of St Margaret and the Dragon. in addition to the inscription are the words "Clavis cordium" a pun on the name which means "key to the heart" and also a second pun is painted in the form of daisies (marguerites), a play on his daughter's name. William Morris' recent death , a cause of great pain to the artist is indirectly referred to in the shape of the flowers which are similar to a motif Morris used to decorate the Red house in the early 1860s. The piano is decorated inside with a maiden picking roses.