There are two candidates for the oldest keyboard instrument in the collection. Stearns 1334 is a spinet, an instrument resembling the harpsichord but has only a single string per note. A letter dated 1 August 1950 from John Challis, a Detroit area harpsichord maker who restored the instrument at that time, states that it was constructed around 1600, but that the outer case was a much later construction, dating from around the turn of the twentieth century. The instrument spans a little more than three octaves from e. It has short, dark wooden keys that when pressed, activate quill plectra that pluck the string. The sound is enhanced through the sounding board that has an ornately carved rose in the center. The decorated case is in two parts: the upper case where the instrument is placed and a removable stand that raises the instrument approximately 1 meter from the ground.