INDUSTRIES 



in the upper part of small flat pieces of wood 

 termed jacks. These jacks were perpendicular 

 to the keys, and when after striking the string 

 the jack had made its escape it fell in such a 

 way as to be able at will to reproduce the 

 sound anew. The strings of the virginal 

 were of metal instead of catgut. The spinet 

 was of similar construction, differing only in 

 its shape, which was that of a harp laid in a 

 horizontal position. The chief London 

 makers of the spinet and harpsichord in the 

 first three-quarters of the ijth century were 

 the Hitchcocksand Hay wards, fathers and sons. 

 John Hitchcock made spinets with a compass 

 of five octaves; some are known bearing dates 

 between 1620 and 1640. Charles Haward 

 or Hayward is also mentioned as a celebrated 

 maker in i6j2. 12 Hayward lived in Aldgate, 

 and was patronized by Samuel Pepys. 



Another celebrated maker was Joseph 

 Baudin ; a spinet by him, which belonged to 

 Dr. Rimbault, has the inscription : 'Josephus 

 Baudin, Londini, fecit 1723.' Another 

 maker named Player is said to have made 

 spinets with quarter tones. 13 In Hogarth's 

 'Rake's Progress ' is a harpsichord by Mahoon, 

 who was harpsichord maker to his Majesty and 

 also a maker of spinets. Baker Harris was 

 another eminent maker in the latter half of 

 the 1 8th century; one of his spinets with 

 white keys and dated 1776 was seen by Dr. 

 Rimbault in 1858. Spinets ceased to be 

 made in London or elsewhere, according to 

 Mr. A. J. Hipkins, 14 in 1784. 



A more important instrument than any of 

 those yet described was the harpsichord, which 

 held during the 1 6th, I7th, and i8th cen- 

 turies a position similar to that of the grand 

 pianoforte, an instrument which it also re- 

 sembled in shape. It was used in the orchestra 

 as an accompanying instrument from the time 

 of the first opera and the first oratorio in the 

 year 1600, and continued to be a favourite 

 with musicians down to the times of Handel 

 and Bach. The action of the harpsichord was 

 simply a key and a jack, the latter consist- 

 ing of a piece of pear-wood with a small 

 movable tongue of holly through which crow- 

 quills or points of hard leather were passed to 

 touch the string when the jack was in action. 

 The larger harpsichords had two rows of keys 

 and three strings to each note ; of the latter, 

 two were tuned in unison and the third sounded 

 an octave higher. 



Like the rest of the minor key-board instru- 

 ments, the harpsichord was of Italian origin, 



" Salmon, Vindication of an Essay (1672), 68. 

 " A. Warren, Tonometer (1725), 7. 

 11 Edw. F. Rimbault, op. cit. 72. 



the name being an English equivalent of arpi- 

 cordo ; but the Italian workmanship was 

 inferior, and the finest examples of early harpsi- 

 chords were made by the Ruckers family of 

 Antwerp. Four members of this family ac- 

 quired great reputation for their work from 

 1579 to the middle of the following century. 

 Their instruments lasted long, and were some- 

 times expensively decorated a hundred years 

 after they had been made. Many Ruckers 

 harpsichords survived and fetched high prices 

 until nearly the end of the 1 8th century, one 

 being sold in 1770 for 3,000 francs, or 120. 

 When the Ruckers family passed away the 

 makers of London and Paris succeeded to 

 their reputation. Tabel, a Fleming of whom 

 very little is known, came over to this country 

 and settled in London, bringing with him the 

 influence of the Ruckers school. A harpsi- 

 chord made by Tabel is possessed by Helena, 

 Countess of Radnor, and bears the inscrip- 

 tion ' Hermanus Tabel fecit Londini, 1721.' 

 Harpsichords had, however, been made in 

 London in the 1 7th century by the spinet- 

 makers, the Hitchcocks, Hayward, and Keene ; 

 only one harpsichord by John Hitchcock is 

 now known to exist, but spinets by the above 

 makers are still occasionally met with in old 

 country mansions. Another early maker was 

 Johannes Asard, one of whose instruments is 

 dated i622. 15 



John Playford, the well-known music pub- 

 lisher who kept a shop in the Inner Temple 

 near the church door, advertised in the second 

 book of his Select Ayres and Dialogues, folio, 

 1669 : 'If any person desire to be furnished 

 with good new virginals and harpsicons, if 

 they send to Mr. Playford's shop, they may 

 be furnished at reasonable rates to their con- 

 tent.' Mace, writing in i676, 16 gives a 

 curious account of the pedal harpsichord, and 

 mentions the price of these instruments, 

 which was ordinarily ^2O, though two were 

 bought by Sir Robert Bolles for 30 and 50 

 respectively. 



John Harris, son of the celebrated organ- 

 builder Renatus Harris, who was a maker 

 of organs, harpsichords, and spinets in Red 

 Lion Street, Holborn, claimed to have taken 

 out the first patent 17 in this country for an 

 improvement in the construction of the harp- 

 sichord. His invention is described in his 

 printed advertisement, a copy of which is 

 preserved in the Chetham Library, Man- 

 chester. 18 On a harpsichord with two sets of 



" Ibid. 401. 



16 Mace, Mustek's Monument, 235. 

 " 22 Oct. 1730, no. 521. 

 18 J. O. Halliwell, Coll. of Broadsides, no. 830 ; 

 Rimbault, Pianoforte, 86. 



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