A DOUBLE MANUEL HARPSICHORD BY JACOB KIRKMAN

Details

A DOUBLE MANUEL HARPSICHORD BY JACOB KIRKMAN
LONDON,1760

Inscribed: Jacobus Kirkman Londini fecit 1760; the elaborately decorated keyboard surround of marquetry with central musical trophy flanked by eagles and angels with trumpets, the keyboards with ivory naturals and ebony accidentals and molded sycamore keyfronts, the nameboard with four brass stop levers, the case of walnut with burr walnutpanels with boxwood stringing and burr elm banding, the large decorative strap hinges of cast brass, the soundboard set with a gilt rose showing King David with harp and Kirkman's initials: I.K., the folding music desk of walnut, on trestle stand with four cabriole legs carved with acanthus leaves on ball and claw feet; range FF to f3 without FF#, four hand stops with brass pulls--30¾in. (90.5cm.) high, 37in. (94cm.) wide, 12¼in. (31cm.) deep, 92in. (234cm.) long

Lot Essay

Most probably the example listed as No. 12 on page 63 of Donald Boalch, Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840, New York 1956.

Jacob Kirkman was born in 1710 near Strasbourg. He emigrated in the 1730's to England, where he worked for Hermann Tabel, a Flemish harpsichord maker. 'Kirkman worked with the celebrated Tabel as his foreman and finisher till the time of his death. Soon after which...Kirkman married his master's widow [c.1738], by which prudent measure he became possessed of all of Tabel's seasoned wood, tools and stock in trade...' (Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord 1440-1840, New York 1956, p. 60). Kirckman became the most famous and most prolific harpsichord maker in England. He went into a partnership with his nephew, Abraham Kirkman, c. 1770, and died at Greenwich in 1792. Decorated harpsichords by Kirckman are rare.