The Evolution of the Piano 
and Haward and Hitchcock appear to have been 
eminent makers. The latter had the honor of 
supplying Samuel Pepys. 
Coincident with the introduction of the spinet 
appeared the harpsichord. The harpsichord is in 
fact a double, triple or quadruple spinet, the sound 
being excited by a jack plectrum the same as in the 
spinet. During the two hundred years after its intro¬ 
duction the harpsichord underwent many changes 
and it was not uncommon to adorn them with elab¬ 
orate designs. The palm for excellence in harp¬ 
sichord making is due the famous Ruckers family of 
Antwerp. One of these harpsichords is preserved in 
Windsor Castle and is of interest from the fact that it 
is believed to he the instrument mentioned in Han¬ 
del’s will. Bach liked the harpsichord and used one 
with two registers. A harpsichord was made by 
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Clementi, the great pianist and predecessor of the 
Collard firm, as late as 1802, the last year that Bee¬ 
thoven’s Sonatas were published for that instrument. 
It was a harpsichord maker, Bartolommeo Cristo- 
fori, in the employ of the Duke of Tuscany who, in 
1711, made the first successful piano—Marius of 
France and Schroeter of Germany producing less 
happy models after. Though the invention of this 
Paduan harpsichord maker had sonatas composed 
for it and it was called pianoforte because it could be 
played piano as well as forte, it was soon forgotten. 
Cristofori as curator of Ferdinand dei Medici had a 
splendid collection of Belgium, French and Italian 
instruments to look after, the study of which undoubt¬ 
edly aided him in his invention. There are two 
grand pianos of Cristofori still existing. One 
decorated in gold and Chinese figures is in Florence, 
THREE BANKED HARPISCHORD IN METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART 
26l 
