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Original state:
Current string scalings
Original string scalings (estimated)
Gauge numbers are stamped on the front face of the wrestplank using a metal punch and a chisel by the following notes: current compass: G 5, G# 6, d 6, e flat 7, e flat1 7, e1 8, e2 8, f2 9; original compass: c 5, c# 6, g 6, g# 7, g#1 7, a1 8, a2 8, b flat2 9 The cap mouldings on the case sides, the cheek scrolls at the sides of the keywell, the lower baseboard moulding at the front of the case and the jackrail are all ornamented with ivory beads placed at regular intervals. The sides of the soundwell, the jackrail and the scrolls are decorated with Renaissance vine-work and knotted arabesques in gilt and oil paint. Details of the vines, flowers and knots have been penned in ink. The top ebony inlay on the jackrail has a gilt vine-work design without any oil painting or ink detail. The front of the nameboard has particularly beautiful decoration with Renaissance motifs in gold, oil and ink. Ebony and boxwood stringing are inlaid into the nameboard to form a series of central diamond-shaped patterns with a double set of stringing forming a border. The central part of the larger diamond patterns is inlaid with ebony veneer. Onto the large central diamond veneer is painted the signature; leaf and vine patterns decorate the other diamond patterns. The border between the ebony inlay and the stringing, the central part of the smallest diamonds and the area between the outer double sets of stringing are painted red using a pigment which is transparent. The sharp blocks were originally decorated with gilt arabesques that have mostly been worn away. The outside of the outer case is painted a dark olive green and the panels created by the vertical straps are painted in grisaille. The outside of the lid is painted in a grisaille vine-work pattern; the inside of the lid is painted in the style of Paris Bordone of Venice (c. 1580), depicting Venus and Cupid. There are traces of an earlier case decoration in blue-green and gold where the paint has been damaged. A sample was taken from the side of the case, and the layers were analysed by the National Gallery Scientific Department by optical microscopy and spectrographic analysis with the laser microprobe (LMA). This showed the lowest paint layer at the point from which the sample was taken to be mauvish-grey (comprising lead white mixed with a black pigment and traces of a reddish earth pigment). The blue-green layer, applied over a layer of true gesso, contained Prussian blue, invented in 1704 and adopted widely soon after its introduction. The top layers contain artificial ultra-marine, invented in 1828, and verdigris, which was replaced by more stable green pigments later in the 19th century. So it is likely that the present case decoration dates from c. 1830–50 (Roy 1986). 7 History of earlier states and restorations State 1: Compass C/E to f3, disposed 1 x 8ft, 1 x 4ft with a long scale for iron stringing. State 2: The 4ft register was removed and replaced with a second 8ft, the new strings added to the right of the jacks for each note. Therefore the maximum scalings were still those of the original 8ft so the pitch of the instrument was unchanged. The original compass was retained but the keyboard was raised so that the old 4ft jacks could reach the new set of 8ft strings. The holes in the soundboard which held the 4ft hitchpins were plugged and the 8ft bridge was extended. State 3, the 1693 state: A new keyboard with compass G1/B1 to c3 was made. A new balance rail was made but the rack was re-used. The new keyboard raised the pitch of the instrument by a fourth. If the instrument had been re-strung in brass, the scalings would have been effectively lengthened only by a minor to a major third. In order to make up the additional difference in scaling of a semi-tone to a tone, the nut was moved away from the gap to lengthen the scalings by the required amount. State 4: This state consisted mostly of the consolidation of work already done. The jacks and keylevers were numbered to make the figures clearer, new padding under the fronts of the keylevers was installed and the pedal pull-downs were eliminated. The buff mechanism might have been added at this stage. The jacks are labelled in 2 distinct hands. One hand seems contemporary with the 1693 date and labels them ‘P’ (primo) and ‘S’ (secondo). A second hand re-labels and re-numbers the jacks, which appears to be in the same hand as the second numbering of the keys. The fact that the jacks are labelled ‘P’ and ‘S’ while the registers are stamped ‘P’ and ‘O’ (ottavo) seems to suggest that the jacks all date from the 1693 state with the 2 unisons, whereas the registers are original and belong to the original state with 1 x 8ft and 1 x 4ft. Gift of Sir George Donaldson, 1894. It is probably the harpsichord discovered and acquired in 1881 in Naples by Vincenzo Capobianchi, a Roman painter (see Valdrighi 1884; information provided by Denzil Wraight). Technical drawing with additional notes by William Debenham, 1977 (outer case not drawn), © RCM Luigi-Francesco Valdrighi, ‘Nomocheliurgografią antica e moderna ossia elenco di fabbricatori di strumenti armonici’, extract from v.II, series II of Memorie della Academia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Modena, Sezione d’Arti (Modena: Societą Tipografica, 1884), pp. 93 & 219–20 Sir George Donaldson, Catalogue of the Musical Instruments and Objects Forming The Donaldson Museum (London: Waterlow & Sons, 1894), pl.II A J Hipkins, A Description and History of the Piano-forte and of the older keyboard stringed instruments (London: Novello, 1896), p.78 Ernest Kuhe, ‘For Students of the Arts: III–The Royal College of Music’, Lady’s Pictorial, January 1916, ill. p.121 Robert de la Condamine, ‘The Donaldson Museum at the Royal College of Music’, Apollo, 1926, p.48 H C Colles, editor, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 4th edition, 5 volumes with supplementary volume (London: Macmillan, 1948), v.5 p.374 Eric Blom, editor, A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th edition, 9 volumes with supplementary volume (London: Macmillan, 1954 & 1961), v.4 frontispiece; v.3 p.536 Donald H Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440–1840, 1st edition (London: George Ronald, 1956), p.125 [No.1] Frank Hubbard, Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965), p.38 Keith Spence, ‘Instruments our ancestors played’, Country Life Annual, 1966, p.38 & ill. Edwin M Ripin, editor, Keyboard Instruments (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1971), pp.4–5 & 7 Raymond Russell, The Harpsichord and Clavichord, 2nd edition (London: Faber & Faber, 1973), p.36 Donald H Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440–1840, 2nd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), p.171 [No.1] Sheridan Germann, ‘Regional Schools of Harpsichord Decoration’, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, IV (1978), p.61–3 & ftnt 6 Elizabeth Wells, The Royal College of Music Museum of Instruments: Guide to the Collection (London: Royal College of Music, 1984), p.5 & ill. p.6 Ashok Roy, Royal College of Music –Early Painted Musical Instruments, RCM 1 Clavicytherium, RCM 2 Harpsichord (unpublished report written for the Museum, London, 1986, © RCM) , pp.2–3 Stefano Toffolo, Antichi strumenti Veneziani, 1500–1800: Quattro secoli di Liuteria e Cimbalaria (Venice: Arsenale Editrices, 1987), pp.164 & 220 Fanny Waterman, Every Pianist’s Dictionary (London: Faber Music, 1993), p.41 & ill. John Koster, Keyboard Musical Instruments in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1994), p.10 ftnt 2 & p.11 ftnt 18 Donald H Boalch, edited by Charles Mould, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440–1840, 3rd edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), p.661 [TRASUNTINO, A. 1531.] Edward Kottick & George Lucktenberg, Early Keyboard Instruments in European Museums (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997), p.235 & ill. Denzil Wraight, The Stringing of Italian Keyboard Instruments c. 1500–c. 1650, PhD dissertation, The Queen’s University of Belfast, 1997 (order No. 9735109, UMI Dissertation Services), v.1 pp.170, 216, 290, 334 & ftnt 342 p.197; v.2 p.380 Denzil Wraight ‘Principles and Practice in Stringing Italian Keyboard Instruments’, Early Keyboard Journal, 18 (2000), p.235 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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