A HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX 



strings, by his invention, ' may be performed 

 either one unison or two, or two unisons and 

 an octave together ; and the fortes or pianos, 

 or loud or soft, or the contrary, may be exe- 

 cuted as quick as thought ; and double basses 

 may be also expressed by touching single keys.' 

 Harris was joined in partnership by John By- 

 field, and the firm built an organ in 1729 for 

 Shrewsbury, and in 1 740 one for Doncaster 

 which cost 525. 



William Barton, of whom nothing further 

 is known, was granted a patent 19 for improv- 

 ing the tone and durability of harpsichords by 

 using 'pens of silver, brass, steel, and other 

 sorts of metall ' in place of ' crow and raven 

 quills of which they are now made.' The 

 reputation of London makers of musical in- 

 struments now stood very high, especially 

 abroad, and continued until the close of the 

 century. It was much enhanced by several 

 foreigners who found their way to this country 

 and started business in London. Dr. Burney, 

 in an account of his travels in Germany, 20 

 writes : ' The Germans work much better 

 out of their own country than in it, if we 

 may judge by the harpsichords of Kirkman 

 and Shudi, the pianofortes of Backers, and the 

 organs of Snetzler, which far surpass in good- 

 ness all the keyed instruments that I met with 

 in my tour through Germany.' 



Rutgerus (or Roger) Plenius, one of these 

 German makers, lived in South Audley Street, 

 Grosvenor Square, ' ye King's Arms being 

 over ye Door," and in 1741 put forth a curious 

 printed advertisement 21 in which he claims 

 to have made ' more than twenty essential 

 improvements ' in the harpsichord, and sets 

 forth the merits of his 'new invented musical 

 instrument called a Lyrichord.' An advertise- 

 ment in the Public Advertiser of 12 June 1755 

 states that his lyrichord was ' to be seen and 

 heard 'till sold ' daily from 1 1 till 2 ' at the 

 Golden Ball opposite the little south door of 

 St. Paul's, in St. Paul's Church-yard, for half a 

 crown each person.' Plenius and his invention 

 are last met with in an auction sale on 1 1 Feb- 

 ruary 1772 at Christie's in Pall Mall, when 

 fifteen harpsichords, several 'with double and 

 single bass pedals, being the stock in trade of 

 Frederick Naubauer, harpsichord maker,' were 

 advertised to be sold, together with a lyri- 

 chord ' made by the famous Rutgerus Plenius.' 

 This instrument was intended to imitate 

 bow stringed instruments, and was played 

 upon by means of a keyboard and a treadle ; 



" 17 Dec. 1730, no. 525. 



10 Present State of Music in Germany (\ 773), ii,i46. 



11 Halliwell Coll. no. 772, in Chet. Lib. ; Rim- 

 bault, Pianoforte, 87-8. 



the strings of wire and gut were set vibrating 

 by rotating wheels, the keys when pressed 

 down forming the contact. Plenius took out 

 two patents, one dated 30 December 1 74 1, 22 

 for various improvements in harpsichords, 

 spinets, &c. ; the second, dated 10 July 

 I745, 23 specifies among other improvements 

 a ' Welch harp ' stop which he worked by a 

 pedal. Plenius was the first to make a piano- 

 forte in England. 24 



During the i8th century Tabel's pupils 

 Burckhardt Tschudi or Burk.it Shudi, and 

 Jacob Kirkman became famous as eminent 

 makers. Shudi, who was the founder of the 

 firm of Broadwood, was of noble parentage in 

 Switzerland and born 13 March 1702. He 

 came to England in 1 7 1 8 as a simple jour- 

 neyman joiner, and became, like his fellow 

 workman Kirkman, a foreman in Tabel's 

 London workshop. About 1728 he set up 

 for himself in Meard Street, Dean Street, 

 Soho. In 1742 he removed to 33, Great 

 Pulteney Street, and took for his sign the 

 Plume of Feathers to indicate his patronage 

 by Frederick Prince of Wales. His new 

 shop was well chosen, being then situated in 

 the most fashionable part of London and close 

 to the Court at St. James's Palace. Shudi 

 was fortunate in obtaining the patronage of 

 Handel ; and the making of harpsichords, and 

 their tuning and repair especially, being a 

 lucrative business, he soon became wealthy. 

 The harpsichord made by him which once 

 belonged to Queen Charlotte and is now in 

 Windsor Castle bears the date 1740. It has 

 a ' lute ' stop which, like the pedal, was an 

 English invention of the 1 7th century. Shudi 

 is said to have presented a harpsichord to 

 Frederick the Great, whom he greatly admired 

 and considered to be the leader of the Protes- 

 tant cause, after the capture of Prague in 1744. 

 A picture which was formerly in one of the 

 rooms at Great Pulteney Street is said to 

 represent Shudi, in the company of his wife 

 and their two children, engaged in tuning this 

 identical instrument. The picture is repro- 

 duced as a frontispiece to Dr. Rimbault's 

 History of the Pianoforte. Frederick after- 

 wards (in 1766) ordered from Shudi two 

 double harpsichords for his new palace at 

 Potsdam, where they still remain. One of 

 these is described by Burney 25 as a magnifi- 

 cent instrument which cost 200 gns., ' the 

 hinges, pedals, and frame are of silver, the 

 case is inlaid, and the front is of tortoiseshell.' 

 The Potsdam harpsichords were made with 



"No. 581. "No. 613. 



" A. J. Hipkins, Musical Instruments, 94. 



"' Present State qf Music in Germany, ii, 145. 



182 



