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Date: |
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Description: | Thomas White Fecit 1642
Pepys observed, while fleeing the Great Fire of London in 1666, that practically all of the boats on the Thames included ‘a pair of Virginalls’. This attests to the portability of the instrument and its domestic popularity during the preceding Civil War and Commonwealth period of Oliver Cromwell (1642-1659), when music was banned from public places including churches and theatres. The domestic instrument which appeared with the Restoration in the 1660s, eventually supplanting the virginals, was the English bentside spinet.
English virginals with integral keyboard. Keyboard compass of 49 notes, C-c'''. The lowest key can be used to play either of two notes depending on which of the two lowest mortises holds a jack. All of the case is of oak apart from the bottom and the spine which are of pine. The soundboard is spruce or pine and the soundboard rose is of gilded wood and parchment. The case is, in the manner of all surviving English virginals of this period, stained black on the outside. It retains its original coffered lid. The strap hinges and hasps are of iron of a known pattern seen on other virginals. The interior is painted in a 'naive' style typical of these instruments showing the gentry promenading and peasants haymaking. The soundboard is decorated in gouache with flowers, fruits and birds. The interior of the case and front are decorated with gilded embossed papier mache. The keyboard naturals have fronts of gilded and embossed paper and are further decorated with stamped ornamentation on the keyheads. | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Subjects: | wood paper Adlam Burnett Workshop British boxwood paint gilding | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-219567 |
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