Clavecin à marteaux (harpsichord with hammers)
Maker
Louis Bas
Date1781
Place MadeVilleneuve lès Avignon, France, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedPainted around “rose”: L • BAS • FECIT • 1781Handwritten in ink on a paper slip glued to the upper surface of the bottom, under the “rose” area of the soundboard:
Ludovicus Bas / faciebat / villanova [prope] avenion[em] / 22e 9[bre] anno 1781 / Fait / par Louis Bas a villeneuve / [lès] avignon le 22[eme] nov-[embre] / 1781
MarkingsROGU (or) RUYCC (cast-in letters on several of the decorative brass mounts)
DescriptionThis instrument, with its beautifully preserved soundboard decoration, is among the earliest extant French grand pianos. It has a Cristofori-type action with a compass of FF-g3 (63 notes). The piano may originally have had two pedals, one for the una corda, the other for the dampers (now missing). Each hammer shank, including the integral butt and lower portion of the head, are formed from a single piece of pearwood. Inverted wrest plank.
Stringing: bichord throughout.
FF-g3 (5+octaves).
Two pedals (missing): una corda, dampers (now missing) throughout.
Construction:
The case is made of fir. Closed bottom, with the case sides resting on the bottom. The soundboard grain is perpendicular to the gap. The bridge is trapezoidal (nearly triangular) and is double pinned throughout. The extreme bass end of the bridge (lowest three strings) is cantilevered; the treble end is cut straight. The bridge was made from two strips of wood and is bent to its curve. The bridge pins on the speaking length side are located in the seam in the center of the bridge. The bridge is slightly curved to the left in the bass, forming a slight S-shape.
The bottom is closed, but previous examinations indicate that there are no ribs under the bridge, that the cutoff bar is in front of the bridge, and that there are several ribs between the cutoff bar and the spine. The inverted wrestplank is of oak, 32.5mm thick. The tuning pins extend through the wrestplank and are strung from underneath. The pins are rectangular at the top and have slots at the bottom for the strings. The one-piece nut is single pinned and is attached to the underside of the wrestplank. The bottom of the wrestplank, where the tuning pins protrude, is cut out about 6mm, which allows the pins to be slightly raised, yielding greater pressure on the nut. The piano sits on a stand with seven cabriole legs.
In the late-nineteenth or early-twentieth century the piano was painted olive green with florid garlands and ferns. All of this later decoration has been removed (except for the fallboard), revealing a plain green layer of paint. Underneath the green paint is a layer of plain grey paint and, surrounding the keyboard and soundboard, a layer of red paint. The edges of the case, lid, and lower edge of the stand have moldings cut into the wood and are decorated with gold leaf. A separate gold-painted molding surrounds the stand. All seven legs have gold-plated brass mounts in the shape of a lion's head. The bottom of the legs have boots in the shape of a lion's claw, made of the same material.
Despite the alterations made to the outside of the case, the soundboard contains an unusually well-preserved painting. Dark blue arabesques border the perimeter of the soundboard and both sides of the bridge. The "rose" is sky blue, and is surrounded by a white border containing the signature, which is, in turn, surrounded by a garland of red, blue, white, pink, and yellow roses. The soundboard is decorated with individual stems of flowers, mostly roses (some with thorns), but also a vine at the tail resembling honeysuckle, a red tulip-like flower in the bass corner, and two stems in the treble corner with leaves and purple and white violet-like flowers. There is also a dove carrying a branch with red berries (representing Christ's resurrection), a moth (representing man's spiritual liberation from his body), two dragonflies, insects, and distant birds.
Action:
Cristofori double action. The jacks consist of wooden tongues, which are leather hinged at the bottom to wooden capsels made of pearwood, capsels 35 mm long. The top of the tongue is covered with buckskin. The capsel is mounted to the key with a threaded wire which extends through the bottom of the keylever. The tongues have springs, and the capsel has a diagonal wire brace running from the top of the capsel to the key. When the key is depressed the tongues contact cmall rectangular blocks glued to the underside of the intermediate levers. The levers are of pear and are leather hinged to a rail at the back of the action frame. They are trapezoidal, 3.3 mm thick, 116 mm long. Each hammer molding, shank, and butt were carefully carved from a single piece of pearwood. Their dimensions are equal throughout; round shanks 3.4 mm thick; hammer moldings 11.5 mm long (top to bottom), 10.5 mm wide, 4.5 mm thick. The hammers are leather hinged. Hammers FF-b2 have three layers of leather: one thick and two thin. The total thickness of the leather of the bass hammer is 4.5 mm. Hammers c3-g3 have only two thin layers of leather. The hammers are slightly graduated from bass to treble. There are no backchecks and no adjustment screws, but letoff can be adjusted by raising the capsels.
Dampers:
Damper compass FF-g3. All the dampers are missing. There is an upper and lower box guide. The lower guide is raised when the damper mechanism is engaged.
Keyboard:
Naturals ebony capped, three score lines. Bone-covered sharps. The key levers have horizontal metal pins at the back, which are guided by dovetail slots at the back of the action frame. The keys are stopped by the back rail. The action frame does not have a front rail; key cloth is glued directly on the front of the keybed. The key levers do not have lead weights.
Stringing and scaling:
Double strung. Strings evenly spaced.
A nearly complete set of original (?) strings was supplied by Hugh Gough. The gauges were taken (in inches) in the order that the strings were supplied, but the strings for a2-f3 were too short and were moved up one half step (no strings were supplied for f#3 and g3). The instrument was restrung with replacements added.
String gauges and materials (first string, second string):
FF: .035" red brass, .034" yellow brass
FF#: .035" red brass, .040" yellow brass
GG: .035" red brass, .035" yellow brass
GG#: .031" red brass, .031" red brass
AA: .031" red brass, .031" red brass
AA#: .031" red brass, .031" red brass
BB: .031" red brass, .033" yellow brass
C: .024" yellow brass, .024" yellow brass
C#: .031" yellow brass, .031" yellow brass
D: .031" yellow brass, .028" yellow brass
D#: .025" yellow brass, .029" iron
E: .028" yellow brass, .028" yellow brass
F: .018" yellow brass, missing
F#: .028" yellow brass, missing
G: missing, missing
G#: .026" yellow brass, .022" yellow brass
A: .021" yellow bras, .025" iron
B: .018" yellow brass, missing
c: .023" iron, .025" irong
c#: .022" iron, .023" iron
d: .025" iron, .020" iron
d#: .025" iron, .023" iron
e: .019" iron, .020" iron
g: .019" iron, .019" iron
g#: .019" iron, .019" iron
a: .018" iron, .018" iron
a#: .019" iron, .019" iron
b: .021" iron, .019" iron
c1: .019" iron, .019" iron
c#1: .019" iron, .019" iron
d1: .020" iron, .019" iron
d#1: .019" iron, .018" iron
e1: .018" iron, .016" iron
f1: .018" iron, .018" iron
f#1: .018" iron, .018" iron
g1: .018" iron, .018" iron
g#1: .015" iron, .015" iron
a1: .017" iron, .014" iron
a#1: .018" iron, .018" iron
b1: .018" iron, .018" iron
c2: .018" iron, .018" iron
c#2: .023" iron, .017" iron
d2: .018" iron, missing
d#2: .016" iron, .016" iron
e2: .016" iron, .016" iron
f2: .016" iron, .016" iron
f#2: .016" iron, .018" iron
g2: .016" iron, .016" iron
g#2: .017" iron, .014" iron
a2: .016" iron, .013" iron
a#2: .015" iron, .015" iron
b2: .015" iron, .014" iron
c3: .014" iron, .014" iron
c#3: .016" iron, .010" iron
d3: .016" iron, .016" iron
d#3: .017" iron, .014" iron
e3: .014" iron, .014" iron
f3: .016" iron, .016" iron
f#3: missing, missing
g3: missing, missing
DimensionsLength: 2163 mm
Width: 935 mm
Overall height: 942 mm
Height of case: 260mm
Spine thickness: 20mm
Bentside thickness: 16.5mm
Tail thickness: 16mm
Tail length: 255mm
Angle of tail with spine: 60 degrees
Bridge height: 13mm
Bridge thickness: 15mm (treble), 18mm (bass)
Three-octave measure: 463mm
Length of heads: 38mm
Width of heads: 20mm
String length: c2: 280 mm (Rose measurement?)
String lengths, striking points (Kelly measurements):
FF: 1697mm, 165mm
C: 1478mm, 145mm
c: 996mm, 107mm
c1: 538mm, 70mm
c2: 277mm, 31mm
c3: 153mm, 5mm
g3: 120mm, 4mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1989 from Hugh Gough, New York, New York. Gough purchased it from a dealer in 1977. Previously it was owned by Bruce King, Houston, Texas, who purchased it in New York in 1949.
Published ReferencesGermann, Sheridan. “Harpsichord Decoration: A Conspectus,” in Howard Schott, ed., The Historical Harpsichord, vol. 4 (Hillsdale, N.Y.: Pendragon Press, 2002), p. 146.
Kelly, Rodger S. A Catalog of European Pianos in The Shrine to Music Museum, M.M.Thesis (University of South Dakota: 1991), pp. 13-22.
Koster, John. "Foreign Influences in Eighteenth-Century French Piano Making," Early Keyboard Journal, Vol. 11 (1993), pp. 7-38
-------. "Two Early French Grand Pianos," Early Keyboard Journal, Vol. 12 (1994), pp. 7-37.
-------. "Three Grand Pianos in the Florentine Tradition," Musique- Images-Instruments, Vol. 4 (1998), pp. 102-111.
-------. “Museum Adds Another Treasure . . . Rare 1785 Silbermann Spinet Only Example Outside of Europe,” America’s Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 26, No. 2 (May 1999), pp. 1-3.
Kuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), p. 10.
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1989
Object number04653
On View
On view
