French & Flemish Instruments

Flemish Single Manual Harpsichord

This is a small four-octave instrument based on the Couchet in the Smithsonian.

It is typical of the Ruckers instruments but has a full four octaves instead of their short octave C/E-c keyboard.

I offer it as a C-d’’’ model without transposer or a C-c’’’ with transposer. It is 76” x 30” and comes with a painted exterior and papered interior.

It is available with a (2x8’) disposition or a (1x8’, 1x4’) disposition. An additional row of jacks to pluck the 8’ choir closer to the end of the string, as in the antique, is also available.

A bone covered keyboard is standard and painted soundboard, fancy stand, and marbled exterior are optional.

Price with two stops, $18,000; with three stops, $18,500.

Eighteenth Century Flemish Single Manual Harpsichord

Based on the instruments of Delin, this instrument is 85” x 35”and (2x8’) with a range of GG-e’’’ with a transposing ebony covered keyboard.

This makes it a nice sized instrument. It is decorated with gold bands on a painted case.

Price: $19,000.

French Bentside Spinet

This is a small, wing-shaped single manual spinet (1x8’) with a five octave, FF-f’’’ (except FF#) ebony covered keyboard with light colored sharps. It is 70” x 27” and sounds similar to the upper manual of a French double manual harpsichord.

Plastic jacks with adjustment screws are standard, though wood jacks are also available, as is a painted exterior with gold trim.

Price: $17,000.

I also offer this instrument decorated in the English fashion of veneered crossbanded panels with bone covered keyboards, fancy brass hinges, and a turned trestle stand.

Price: $20,000.

French 17th c. Double Manual Harpsichords

This model is based on a photo of an antique destroyed during World War II. It shares similarities to the Dennis instrument in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

It has a range of (GG-d’’’), strung in brass with a (2’x8’, 1’x4’) disposition with buff stop and transposing keyboard. Ebony naturals with light colored sharps and arcaded fronts are standard, but Gothic trefoil arcades are available as an option. T

his case is painted and trimmed with gold bands. A parchment “wedding cake” rose is standard.

Price: $23,000.

French 18th c. Double Manual Harpsichords

These are the largest and most complex of all the instruments I currently offer. They have five octave (FF-f’’’) ebony covered keyboards with bone topped sharps. They have three stops, (1x8’, 1x4’) on the lower keyboard, and a (1 x 8’) on the upper, with a shove coupler to combine all these on the lower.

Wood jacks are standard but plastic jacks can be substituted. I offer models based on harpsichords by Taskin and Blanchet, but other models can be made for the same price.

These instruments measure about 92’ x 37” and come painted and trimmed in gold.

Price: $24,500. Single manual versions are available for $22,000.

All of these instruments come with a turned four leg stand, but table stands of all types can be supplied as options from $2,000 and up.