octave spinet
Maker
Peter Harlan
Date1931
Place MadeMarkneukirchen, Germany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPrinted paper label inside the case, visible through the rose hole: PH (monogram with guitar) / Gebaut von / PETER HARLAN / Markneukirchen / SA / Im Jahre / 1931 [the date written by hand]Stamped on the treble end of the soundboard and on the nameboard, the maker’s mark consisting of a guitar incorporating the monogram PH, with “PETER HARLAN” below.
DescriptionPeter Harlan was one of the most important figures of the revival of early music in Germany. He got his inspiration from Arnold Dolmetsch whom he visited. He started his career as a guitar maker but was interested in all kinds of instruments. He made violas da gamba, fiedels, quintons, violins, lutes, and keyboard instruments (clavichords and spinets). He also restored old instruments – especially those from the Fritz Wildhagen’s collection in Berlin. Part of this collection must have been sold to the USA.
Very little has been published about Peter Harlan until today. In 2005 a symposium about him was held at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nürnberg. The conference proceedings are expected to be published in 2007. There is a collection named after him at Burg Sternberg which contains about 200 instruments made or collected by him.
Other instruments made by P. Harlan in Catalogues:
Reka Collection Catalogue: Alto fiedel, Markneukirchen, ca. 1920; bass recorder, Markneukirchen, ca. 1930; tenor recorder, Markneukirchen, ca. 1930.
Ringve Museum Skrifter, Part II, 1981: Virginal, Markneukirchen. Compass: c – c4. Octave instrument? Spinet or Virginal? There is no picture in the Catalogue.
Keyboard and action: The compass is C to c3 (forty-nine notes). Levers of alder; naturals covered with pear with plain pear(?) fronts; sharps of pear, blackened by scorching. Jack-rest pads on the levers are of leather with a black surface. The distal ends of the key levers are guided between upright metal pins (modern piano-style balance pins), with leather bushings on the sides of levers. Lead weights near the distal ends of the levers. Modern piano-style round balance pins. The balance and back rails are glued to the bottom of the instrument. The jack bodies and the tongues are made of aluminum. Numbers are stamped on the tongues and on the bodies. Regulating screw through the body just under the tongue slot to regulate the bottom of the tongue. A set screw inserted from top of the tongue bears against the plectrum to hold it in place. Axle pins of brass. Original(?) hard leather plectra in jacks 5, 6, 48, 49; replacement(?) black rubber plectra in the rest. Felt flag dampers in a single slot in each body. Brass leaf springs are attached to the body with a screw and bear against the bottom of the tongue. Jacks guided by individual slots (with cutouts on both sides for tongue clearance) cut out of the soundboard with an additional thickness of wood underneath and a thick wooden lower guide, not far beneath, all glued together to form a sort of box guide, with an open middle.
Strings: Steel strings throughout, probably mostly original. Wrest pins are squared-headed nickel- or chrome-plated standard modern zither pins.
Construction: Walls of softwood; bottom of softwood, 5.9 mm thick, with a circular hole 174 mm in diameter. The bottom is applied to the bottom edge of the walls. In side the walls, there is a heavy rim of beech incorporating the wrest plank, hitch-pin rail, and the soundboard liner at the back. In contrast to the usual spinet arrangement, the wrest pins are at the bent side and the hitch pins are just behind the nameboard. Soundboard of spruce or fir with a wooden geometrical rose, extending all the way to the nameboard. Bridge (sawed to its curve) and nut of maple, both crowned with a thick round wire. Soundboard surrounded by a small bead molding at all edges except the front. The walls are topped by a cap molding and surrounded on the outside by a small bottom molding. The plain, heavy jackrail possibly held a music rack, now missing; at its rear edge is a shelf to hold the front edge of the lid, which is of thin softwood, hinged to the inside of the back, such that it fits inside the case walls, with its upper surface, when closed, slightly lower than the top of the cap molding. The jackrail has a brass latch on each end which can be moved by a wooden knob (the left-hand knob now missing). Glued to the underside of the bottom are several blocks, of uncertain age, serving for reinforcement and for raising the instrument from the surface onto which it is set or for receiving the stand or legs. The nameboard can be removed.
Decoration: One wooden rose. Moldings.
DimensionsCase:
Length of front: 860 mm (with moldings)
Maximum width: 435 mm (excluding projecting key cheeks)
535 mm (including projecting key cheeks)
Height: 155 mm
Keyboard:
3-octave measure 491
Natural heads: 39 mm
Sharp tops: 49 mm
String lengths: C 826; c 555; c1 354; c 2 175; c3 83
String diameters: (in mm)
C
0.40
Bb
0.35
g#
0.30
f# 1
0.30
e2
0.26
C#
0.40
B
0.35
a
0.30
g1
0.30
f 2
0.26
D
0.40
c
0.35
bb
0.30
g# 1
0.30
f# 2
0.26
Eb
0.40
c#
0.35
b
0.30
a 1
0.30
g2
0.26
E
0.40
d
0.32
c1
0.30
bb1
0.28
g#2
0.26
F
0.40
eb
0.32
c#1
0.30
b1
0.28
a2
0.26
F#
0.35
e
0.32
d1
0.30
c2
0.28
bb2
0.26
G
0.35
f
0.32
eb1
0.30
c# 2
0.28
b2
0.23
G#
0.35
f#
0.32
e1
0.30
d2
0.28
c3
0.20
A
0.35
g
0.32
f 1
0.30
eb 2
0.28
Credit LinePaul and Jean Christian Collection
Object number12655
On View
Not on view
1530 ca.
