Harpsichord
Date1660-1690 ca.
Place MadeRome, Italy, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedunsignedDescriptionInner/outer case. Single manual, C/E-c3 (4 octaves, 45 notes); 2 × 8'.
Naturals of boxwood with cypress arcades, sharps accented with ivory studs. Instrument case with thin cypress walls surrounded by delicate moldings. Cap molding and scrolled key cheek accented with ivory studs.
The outer case is original. The cabriole stand and the elaborate painted decoration are from a later period.
The instrument at some time, possibly in the late 18th century, had been converted to a piano with a Stossmechanick action without escapement, somewhat similar to that found in early English square pianos.
DimensionsOverall length: 1903 mm
Overall width: 700 mm
String length: c2: 295 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1989 from John Koster, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Previously owned by the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio.
Published ReferencesBoalch, Donald H. Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840. Third edition, edited by Charles Mould (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p. 541.
Germann, Sheridan. "Harpsichord Decoration: A Conspectus," in Howard Schott, ed., The Historical Harpsichord, Vol. 4 (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2002), pp. 1-213, specifically, pp. 95 and 101.
Koster, John. "Museum Collections as Resources for Musical Instrument Makers," American Lutherie, Vol. 42 (Summer 1995), pp. 34-35.
-------. "Traditional Iberian Harpsichord Making in its European Context," Galpin Society Journal 61 (2008), pp. 65.
-------. "Domenico Scarlatti and the Transformation of Iberian Harpsichord Making," in Domenico Scarlatti en España / Domenico Scarlatti in Spain, Luisa Morales, ed. (Garrucha, Almería, Spain: Asociación Cultural LEAL, 2009), pp. 187-208 (especially fig. 5).
-------. "The Early Neapolitan School of Harpsichord Making," in Domenico Scarlatti en España / Domenico Scarlatti in Spain, Luisa Morales, ed. (Garrucha, Almería, Spain: Asociación Cultural LEAL, 2009), Table 7 (p. 70).
Article: Kyle MacMillan, "State of Being: Restoration or Conservation?," Early Music America 30, No. 3 (September 2024), p. 22. (text)
Larson, André P. "Harpsichord by Giacomo Ridolfi," The South Dakota Musician (Fall 1995), cover and p. 28.
“Robert Pattengale: A Labor of Love,” Moorhead State University Music News 1992, p. 11.
John Koster. "History and Construction of the Harpsichord," The Cambridge Companion to the Harpsichord (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 2-30
CDs
The Art of the Harpsichord: Cabezón to Mozart. Byron Schenkman & Friends U.S., 2017
Canzoni da Sonar. Early Italian Violin Music on Vocal Models, performed by Ingrid Matthews and Byron Schenkman, Centaur Records, 2002.
Ingrid Matthews and Byron Schenkman, In Stil Moderno: The Fantastic Style in Seventeenth-Century Italy (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1995). CD.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Margaret Ann and Hubert H. Everist, 1989
Object number04657
On View
Not on view
1625-1675 ca.
1530 ca.