Click on the images below for more details

Click on the images above for more details.

This extremely fine instrument was sold to a private client on 29 October, 2006 and is therefore no longer for sale.`

A Franco-Flemish double-manual harpsichord,

originally a transposing harpsichord made in Antwerp, c.1620 and

ravalé in Paris in 1750 and then refait by Jacques Barberini, Paris, c.1775

Further information along with a detailed analysis of this instrument was published by me as the article 'An Analysis of the Origins of a Large Franco-Flemish Double-Manual Harpsichord - Would a Ruckers by Any Other Name Sound as Sweet?', The Early Keyboard Journal, XX (2005) 49-80.

Details of the original state of the instrument

          This harpsichord was sent from Brazil for examination and study by me, and for the preparation of a series of reports on its authenticity, condition and suitability for restoration. 

          A careful examination of the instrument has revealed that it was originally a Flemish 'transposing' double-manual harpsichord but, despite the ‘HR’ rose in the soundboard, there is a great deal of evidence which shows that it was not by any of the members of the Ruckers/Couchet family.  The rose appears to be from a genuine Ioannes Ruckers instrument from his early period before 1614, but it does not fit into the hole in the soundboard into which it has been placed.  On the other hand analysis of the placement of the original bridge pins for the strings shows that these were spaced relative to one another using the Antwerp duim (inch) and voet (foot).  In addition markings on the soundboard indicate that there were the usual doubled pairs of strings for the e/g notes normally found on double-manual Flemish harpsichords.  There are three sets of the doubled pairs of strings each spaced from one another by an octave (12 notes) of strings.  Therefore it is clear both from the relative string spacing and from the paired e/g notes that this instrument was originally a Flemish transposing double-manual harpsichord with the usual upper manual compass of C/E to c³ (short- octave bass) at normal pitch, and the lower manual had the normal C/E to f³ bass short-octave compass and was pitched a fourth lower.

         The instrument is therefore an extremely rare and unusual example of a Flemish non-Ruckers double-manual transposing harpsichord.

Details of the eighteenth-century state of this harpsichord.

          There are clear indications that the original seventeenth-century Flemish instrument was enlarged in the eighteenth century to convert it into the standard model 'grand ravalement' 5-octave instrument.  The bottom jacks in each register are dated 1750 and indicate that this was the date of the conversion of the small Flemish harpsichord into a grand French double-manual harpsichord.  When the instrument was restored in Rio de Janeiro in 1971 the restorer Roberto de Regina found the signature or calling card of Jacques Barberini inside the instrument.   Jacques Barberini is known from numerous archival references to have been a harpsichord builder who worked in Paris during the latter part of the eighteenth century.  He is almost certainly the Jacques (Giuseppe?) Barberini who worked in the Rue de la Verrerie, the same street in which both Pascal Taskin and Jean Goermans had their workshops[1].  Barberini entered the Guild of the joiner/instrument builders in 1783, and was responsible for the selling of English pianos.  He is referred to by Constant Pierre[2] when mentioning makers who joined the Paris harpsichord makers’ guild after 1775:

"De 1783 a 1788: Jacques Barberini, rue de la Verrerie (1783-91), ou il tenait des forte-piano anglais des meilleurs auteurs."

Because Barberini did not enter the guild until 1783 it is unlikely that he is the one who carried out the original ravalement in 1750.

          The instrument now has an extremely fine decoration and a stunningly beautiful stand.  In the eighteenth century the instrument would have had four registers with an extra ‘peau de buffle’ register at the rear of the gap.  This register was fitted with soft leather plectra instead of bird quill.  It would have had either a ‘genouillère’ (knee-lever) or perhaps a pedal system for changing the registration.  Unfortunately the system of pedals was removed from the instrument in the 1950’s when it was in the hands of a French antique dealer in Argentina.  Equally disastrously both the ‘peau de buffle’ row of jacks, the baseboard, and possibly the machine mechanism associated with the genouillère or pedal were removed in the 1971 restoration.  There is now virtually no evidence remaining of the former existence of the  ‘genouillère’ or pedal mechanism.

          The ravalement framing is very well designed and carried out, and from a statics point of view provides an extremely rigid and stable structure to the case.  Indeed there is absolutely no sign of any distortion nor twisting of the case and no evidence that the case could not withstand string tension if the instrument were restored to playing condition again.

          Musically it should make an extremely fine instrument and a stunningly beautiful object after restoration.