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Harpsichord
Maker: Joseph Kirckman
Date: 1798
Place Made:London, England, Europe
Serial No: none
SignedIn script on nameboard: Josephus Kirckman Londoni fecit 1798 / No. 19, Broad Street, Soho
DescriptionThis two-manual harpsichord is one of the last made by the Kirckman firm, which, alongside the rival Shudi-Broadwood firm, dominated English harpsichord making for most of the eighteenth century. Joseph Kirckman, head of the firm from about 1790, was the grand nephew of its founder, Jacob Kirckman, an Alsatian cabinetmaker of Swiss extraction, who, along with Burkat Shudi, had learned the trade from Hermann Tabel, himself an immigrant to London from the Low Countries. Shortly after Tabel’s death in 1738, Kirckman married his widow, thereby gaining possession of the master’s stock and business.
In design, construction, and disposition, the Kirckman harpsichord of 1798 is of the standard English model, already to be found in a surviving harpsichord by Hermann Tabel made in 1721. It has the typical two-manual disposition of five-octave FF-f3 compass (61 notes), lower manual with 8’ and 4’ registers, a "dogleg" 8’ shared by both keyboards, a nasal ("lute") 8’ on the upper, and a buff stop to the lower-manual 8’. There are two pedals: a machine stop and a Venetian swell. The machine stop, as it is pressed down, turns off the 4’ and dogleg 8’ registers while the lower-manual solo 8’ remains in the on position and the upper-manual nasal 8’ is engaged. With the swell pedal, the player can control the volume by opening and closing a set of louvers over the soundboard. This instrument, with its palette of color much wider than that offered by the typical French or Italian harpsichord, epitomizes the bold, rich tone for which English harpsichords have long been noted.
In design, construction, and disposition, the Kirckman harpsichord of 1798 is of the standard English model, already to be found in a surviving harpsichord by Hermann Tabel made in 1721. It has the typical two-manual disposition of five-octave FF-f3 compass (61 notes), lower manual with 8’ and 4’ registers, a "dogleg" 8’ shared by both keyboards, a nasal ("lute") 8’ on the upper, and a buff stop to the lower-manual 8’. There are two pedals: a machine stop and a Venetian swell. The machine stop, as it is pressed down, turns off the 4’ and dogleg 8’ registers while the lower-manual solo 8’ remains in the on position and the upper-manual nasal 8’ is engaged. With the swell pedal, the player can control the volume by opening and closing a set of louvers over the soundboard. This instrument, with its palette of color much wider than that offered by the typical French or Italian harpsichord, epitomizes the bold, rich tone for which English harpsichords have long been noted.
DimensionsLength: 2505 mm
Width: 942.5 mm
String length: c2: 352.5 mm
Width: 942.5 mm
String length: c2: 352.5 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1983 from Hugh Gough, Inc., New York, New York, who purchased it from Sotheby's in 1980.
Former owners:
A. Fuller-Maitland
Esther Darlington
Miss Margaret Field-Hyde
Mrs. Katherine Thirkell
Former owners:
A. Fuller-Maitland
Esther Darlington
Miss Margaret Field-Hyde
Mrs. Katherine Thirkell
Terms
Credit Line: Rawlins Fund, 1983
On view
Published ReferencesBoalch, Donald H. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840. Third edition, edited by Charles Mould (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 457.
"Important Acquisitions of 1983 Await New Galleries," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 2 (January 1984), pp. 1-3.
Koster, John. "Traditional Iberian Harpsichord Making in its European Context," Galpin Society Journal 61 (2008), pp. 24, 67.
John Koster. "History and Construction of the Harpsichord," The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 2-30
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), p. 7.
Larson, André P. The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 44
Martin, Darryl. “The Native Tradition in Transition: English Hrpsichords circa 1680-1725,” in John Koster, ed., Aspects of Harpsichord Making in the British Isles (The Historical Harpsichord, vol. 5; Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2009), pp. 13, 15.
Mould, Charles. “Kirkman (Kirckman),” The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia, Igor Kipnis, Ed. (New York: Routledge), pp. 290-293.
Skyrm, Susanne, ed., with assistance from Calvert Johnston and John Koster, Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Spanish Keyboard Music for Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, or Clavichord (Colfax, North Carolina: Wayne Leupold Editions, 2010), p. xi.
Sotheby's Catalogue, May 22, 1980.
CDs
Luisa Morales, Soler and Scarlatti in London: A Selection of Blended Sonatas (Almeria, Spain: FIMTE, 2006).
"Important Acquisitions of 1983 Await New Galleries," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XI, No. 2 (January 1984), pp. 1-3.
Koster, John. "Traditional Iberian Harpsichord Making in its European Context," Galpin Society Journal 61 (2008), pp. 24, 67.
John Koster. "History and Construction of the Harpsichord," The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 2-30
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), p. 7.
Larson, André P. The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 44
Martin, Darryl. “The Native Tradition in Transition: English Hrpsichords circa 1680-1725,” in John Koster, ed., Aspects of Harpsichord Making in the British Isles (The Historical Harpsichord, vol. 5; Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2009), pp. 13, 15.
Mould, Charles. “Kirkman (Kirckman),” The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia, Igor Kipnis, Ed. (New York: Routledge), pp. 290-293.
Skyrm, Susanne, ed., with assistance from Calvert Johnston and John Koster, Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Spanish Keyboard Music for Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, or Clavichord (Colfax, North Carolina: Wayne Leupold Editions, 2010), p. xi.
Sotheby's Catalogue, May 22, 1980.
CDs
Luisa Morales, Soler and Scarlatti in London: A Selection of Blended Sonatas (Almeria, Spain: FIMTE, 2006).
Object number: 03328