{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O169594"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O169594/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PH2631/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PH2631/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PH2631","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0135","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0112","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0113","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0114","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0115","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0116","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0117","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0118","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0119","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0120","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0121","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0122","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0123","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0124","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0125","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0126","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0127","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0128","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0129","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0130","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0131","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0133","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JX0134","copyright":"©Victoria & Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KX3745","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2018KX3741","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O169594/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O169594","accessionNumber":"1739:1,2-1869","objectType":"lid prop","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"Ioannes Ruckers (1578-1642) was the most important member of the Ruckers family of Antwerp, Europe's leading dynasty of harpsichord builders from about 1580 to1650. In 1766 King George III (reigned 1720–1820) replaced this instrument with one made by Jacob Kirckman (1710–1792), whose harpsichords were by then the most sought-after owing to the devices he introduced to vary their volume. Thereafter this harpsichord languished in the Kirckman factory. It was damaged in a fire there in 1855, since which time it has lacked its keys and jacks.","physicalDescription":"Harpsichord with painted floral soundboard, missing its keys, strings and jacks. There is no stand.\n\n'The outside of the case, presumably of poplar, is painted black with rather stiff garlands of flowers and leaves in two sorts of gilding. The interior of the lid is painted green and decorated with rococo scrollwork and putti, all in a greenish-yellow monochrome, apparently executed during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The interior of the harpsichord and the keyboard surround are crudely painted with black and white arabesques to resemble vaguely the Antwerp block-printed papers commonly used to decorate seventeenth-century Flemish harpsichords and virginals. The soundboard of spruce is decorated in gouache with flowers, fruit, birds and arabesques, and contains the maker's rose as a trade mark: a winged figure holding a harp and supporting the initials I.R.\n\nHoward Schott, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part I: Keyboard Instruments(London, 1978), pp. 57-58.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Ruckers, Ioannes","id":"A23511"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"poplar","id":"AAT12363"},{"text":"spruce","id":"AAT12726"},{"text":"lead","id":"AAT11022"},{"text":"gold leaf","id":"x33207"}],"techniques":[{"text":"planing","id":"AAT53863"},{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"painting","id":"x30598"},{"text":"gilding","id":"AAT53789"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Planed, joined and painted wooden (poplar?) case with planed and partly painted spruce soundboard, with gilt lead rose.","categories":[{"text":"Musical instruments","id":"THES48919"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2025PH2631","2017JX0135","2017JX0112","2017JX0113","2017JX0114","2017JX0115","2017JX0116","2017JX0117","2017JX0118","2017JX0119","2017JX0120","2017JX0121","2017JX0122","2017JX0123","2017JX0124","2017JX0125","2017JX0126","2017JX0127","2017JX0128","2017JX0129","2017JX0130","2017JX0131","2017JX0133","2017JX0134","2018KX3745","2018KX3741"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES302344"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES299352"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"lid prop","id":""}],[{"text":"Harpsichord","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Antwerp","id":"x28724"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1639","earliest":"1639-01-01","latest":"1639-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given to the Museum by Messrs Kirckman & Sons","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"173.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"78.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"21.2","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"IR","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"IR on the rosette of the soundboard"},{"content":"1639","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"The date is painted on the soundboard at the base of the 4-foot bridge (i.e. the one nearest the key-well)."}],"objectHistory":"This instrument was formerly the property of George III (reigned 1760 - 1820), who replaced it in 1766 with a harpsichord made by Jacob Kirckman. The instrument was damaged in a fire in the Kirckman factory in 1855, and given to the South Kensington Museum in 1869.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Harpsichord, Flemish (Antwerp), poplar(?) case and spruce soundboard, by Ioannes Ruckers, 1639","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Howard Schott and Anthony Baines (revised by James Yorke), Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum, part I: Keyboard Instruments by Howard Schott (1968, rev. ed. 1985), part II: Non-keyboard Instruments by Anthony Baines (1968, rev. ed. 1978), revised by James Yorke (London, 1998), cat. no. 16, pp. 57-8\n\n16. HARPSICHORD, Ioannes Ruckers, Antwerp, 1639\tMus. No. 1739-1869\r\n\r\n1. The soundboard contains an IR rose. The date 1639 is painted on the soundboard at the base of the 4-foot bridge.\r\n\r\n2. There is no keyboard. The present compass is of fifty-five notes, GG, AA - d3. No wrestpins remain, but the harpsichord in its final state had three choirs of strings: back 8-foot and 4-foot (in median position), both plucking towards the bass, and front 8-foot, plucking towards the treble.\r\n\r\n3.\tThe instrument is not at present strung. Its present scaling, based on the replacement nuts and repinned 4-foot hitchpin rail and soundboard bridges, is approximately as follows:\r\n\r\nLonger eight foot strings\t\r\nGG 1332mm (170mm plucking point)\r\nc2 325mm (88mm)\t\r\nd3 15 3mm (67mm)\n\nFour foot strings\r\nGG 690mm (75mm)\nc2 162mm (53mm)\nd3 116mm (47mm)\r\n\r\nSome of the jacks and the registers, both of English eighteenth-century type, are preserved.\r\n\r\n4.\tThe outside of the case, presumably of poplar, is painted black with rather stiff garlands of flowers and leaves in two sorts of gilding. The interior of the lid is painted green and decorated with rococo scrollwork and putti, all in a greenish-yellow monochrome, apparently executed during the third quarter of the eighteenth century. The interior of the harpsichord and the keyboard surround are crudely painted with black and white arabesques to resemble vaguely the Antwerp block-printed papers commonly used to decorate seventeenth-century Flemish harpsichords and virginals. The soundboard of spruce is decorated in gouache with flowers, fruit, birds and arabesques, and contains the maker's rose as a trade mark: a winged figure holding a harp and supporting the initials I.R. The diameter is 73mm.\n\r\nThe harpsichord measures 1731mm long, 78 5mm wide and 212mm high. There is no stand.\r\n\r\n5.\tLike many harpsichords from the Ruckers workshop, this instrument has undergone various transformations during its working lifetime. It began life as a 6-voet single harpsichord with an exceptional original compass of fifty-one notes, C-d3 chromatic, seemingly especially made for the English market, where short octave C/E-c3, customary on the Continent, was not favoured. The original disposition was one 8-foot (now the front 8-foot) and one 4-foot stop, perhaps with a divided buff stop that has now disappeared in the course of subsequent enlargement. The addition of the second 8-foot \r\nstop required the enlargement of the gap by moving the header or belly-rail further away from the player to accommodate the third register. The enlargement of the instrument affected its compass and disposition but the fifty-five notes and three registers were fitted into the original case which has not been extended. Two longitudinal braces of the sort commonly used in the English eighteenth-century manner of construction were also added behind the belly-rail when the gap was widened. The enlargement of the keyboard was accomplished in part by reducing the size of the end-blocks. Unfortunately, although the original baseboard is still in place, and despite the insertion of the two longitudinal braces, no trace of the series number so typical of the Ruckers workshop can now be made out.\n\r\nThis harpsichord is known to have been the property of King George III, but it was disposed of when Queen. Charlotte received a new harpsichord by Jacob Kirckmann in 1766. The keyboards and stand were destroyed in a fire at Kirckmann's piano manufactury in 1853.\n\r\nThe instrument was given to the museum in 1869 by Messrs Kirckman & Sons.\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n"}],"production":"Attribution note: Howard Schott in the Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum ... assumes that the case of this instrument was poplar. Grant O'Brien in Ruckers. A harpsichord and virginal building tradition (Cambridge, 1990) says that poplar was most commonly used by Ruckers for making harpsichord cases. However, because the case is covered with paint, it cannot be identified with certainty.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["1739:2-1869","1739:1-1869"],"accessionNumberNum":"1739","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1869,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","lid prop","Harpsichord"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-11-12","recordCreationDate":"2008-10-15","availableToBook":true}}