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Clavichord

Date1780 ca.

Place MadeSweden, Europe

Serial No.None

SignedNoneMarkingsString gauges marked in black ink on keysticks as follows:
C-D: 00
E-flat-E: 0
F-G: 1
G-sharp-B: 2
c-c-sharp1: 3
d1-f-sharp1: 4
g1-e3: 5
f3: 6DescriptionThis unsigned fretted clavichord was probably made ca. 1780. The Swedish school of clavichord making flourished from the late 1700s well into the early 1800s. Typical of Swedish clavichords, the grain of the soundboard is diagonal. Clavichords are now considered national treasures in Sweden.

Compass: C-f3 (4-1/3rd octaves).

Fretted (e-e-flat; f-f-sharp; b-b-flat; c1-c-sharp1; e1-e-flat1; f-f-sharp1; g1-g-sharp1).

Double-strung (2 x 8’), plain brass from C-d, iron from e-flat to f3

Soundboard: spruce, diagonal grain
Case: pine; later blue and red paint matched to fragments of original; tool box to left of keyboard; iron lid lock
Hitch pin plate: oak
Bridge: pearwood with scrolled ends
Keylevers: pine
Keytops: naturals ebony on touchplate, black-painted pearwood on stems, bone covered black-painted pearwood sharps
Keyfronts: molded pearwood or maple
74 iron wrest pins
Later pine legsDimensions1540 mm x 430 mm x 153 mm

String lengths between tangent and bridge:
C (lower): 1275 mm
C (upper): 1272 mm
F (lower): 1155 mm
F (upper): 1150 mm
c (lower): 964 mm
c (upper): 955 mm
f (lower): 809 mm
f (upper): 801 mm
c1 (lower): 596 mm
c1 (upper): 586 mm
f1 (lower): 451 mm
f1 (upper): 441 mm
c2 (lower): 279 mm
c2 (upper): 276 mm
f2 (lower): 203 mm
f2 (upper): 201 mm
c3: 128 mm
f3: 83 mmProvenancePurchased in 1998 from Tony Bingham, London, England.Published ReferencesCaldeira, Susana Henriques Rodrigues. "Early Keyboard Instruments." Undergraduate thesis, Escola Superior de Conservação e Restauro, 1997-1998.

"Recent Acquisitions." _America’s National Music Museum Newsletter_ 25, no. 3 (May 1998): 6-7.

Koster, John. “I've Got a Little List . . . List Gets Shorter as Rare Swedish Clavichord is Found!” _America’s National Music Museum Newsletter_ 27, no. 4 (November 2000): 1-2.

Crowell, Gregory. “Two Eighteenth-Century Swedish Clavichords in American Collections.” in Thomas Donahue, ed., _Essays in Honor of Christopher Hogwood: The Maestro’s Direction_. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2011: 181-196.

Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Burke-Bank West, 1997

Object number06105

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