{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O58958"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58958/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EV6125/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2011EV6125/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2011EV6125","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2026PL6476","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2026PL6491","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KB4525","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EV8519","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EV6121","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EV6124","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EV6123","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2011EV6122","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O58958/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O58958","accessionNumber":"W.7:1,2-1917","objectType":"Clavichord","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The clavichord is a soft-sounding keyboard instrument, the strings of which are struck with blades rather than hammers (as used on a piano). This instrument is fitted with ebony naturals and ivory-topped sharps, a characteristic of certain square pianos made in England from about 1770. However, the English tended to import their clavichords from Hamburg in Germany at this time. Peter Hicks, the maker of this instrument, remains virtually unknown, and this is the only clavichord known to have been made in England during the 18th century.","physicalDescription":"Clavichord with rectangular solid mahogany case, spruce soundboard, ebony-covered naturals and ivory-topped sharps. The maker's signature is painted on an inlaid satinwood strip above the keys. The spruce soundboard has a crude rose, formed from a circle surrounded by six small holes.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Hicks, Peter","id":"A23627"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"mahogany","id":"AAT12221"},{"text":"satinwood","id":"AAT12451"},{"text":"spruce","id":"AAT12726"}],"techniques":[{"text":"planing","id":"AAT53863"},{"text":"joining","id":"AAT137062"},{"text":"inlay","id":"AAT53850"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Planed and joined mahogany case with inlaid satinwood nameboard and planed spruce soundboard.","categories":[{"text":"Musical instruments","id":"THES48919"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"FWK","id":"THES48597"},"images":["2011EV6125","2026PL6476","2026PL6491","2017KB4525","2011EV8519","2011EV6121","2011EV6124","2011EV6123","2011EV6122"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES299312"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""},{"current":{"text":"002","id":"THES299312"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Clavichord","id":""}],[{"text":"clavichord parts","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":"probably"}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1780","earliest":"1775-01-01","latest":"1784-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Dr Thomas Lea Southgate","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Length","value":"123.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":"Case Dimensions:\r\nLength 1222 mm, width 350 mm (both excluding base moulding); case height\r\n100 mm."},{"dimension":"Width","value":"35.4","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"10","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Dimsensions taken from Howard Schott: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part I: Keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), pp. 94 - 95.\n\nAdditional case dimensions taken from examinations of the instrument by Peter Bavington, Miles Hellon, Christopher Nobbs on 2 December 2025.\n","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Peter Hicks Fecit\n\nBottom of toolbox reads: \n(handwritten) Thos Lea Southgate\r\n(printed) 19, Manor Park,\r\nHither Green,\r\nLee, S.E.","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"Peter Hicks made this","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Painted on the inlaid satinwood nameboard."}],"objectHistory":"This instrument was bequeathed to the Museum by Dr Thomas Lea Southgate of Upper Northwood, Surrey. He bought it in 1892 from John Gillis of Cardiff.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"English(?) clavichord, solid mahogany case, ebony-covered naturals, ivory-topped sharps, Peter Hicks, about 1780","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Howard Schott: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part I: Keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), pp. 94 - 95.\n\nKnights, Francis: ‘<u>The Peter Hicks Clavichord in the Victoria and Albert Museum’ </u>Clavichord International, Vol 25 No.1. May 2021"}],"production":"Peter Hicks is an otherwise unrecorded maker, who was most probably English. This instrument is the only clavichord known to have been made in England during the 18th century.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"Compass and fretting:\r\nC–d³; 25 courses serving 51 notes. Notes C–A are fret-free; the fretting thereafter\r\nis as follows:\r\nB♭–B | c–c# | d–e♭–e | f–f#–g | g#–a–b♭ | b–c¹–c#¹ | d¹–e♭¹–e¹ | f¹–f#¹–g¹ |\r\ng#¹–a¹–b♭¹ | b¹–c²–c#² | d²–e♭²–e² |f²–f#²–g² | g#²–a²–b♭² | b²–c³ | c#³–d³.\r\nThe spacing of the distal ends of the keylevers indicates that the intended\r\ntemperament was some form of mean-tone, and not equal temperament.\n.....\n\nKeyboard and keylevers:\r\nThree-octave span 480–481 mm. Naturals covered with ebony perfhaps 1.5 mm\r\nthick, with keyfronts of softwood or perhaps lime carved in a concave shape.\r\nAccidental blocks of ebony, covered with slips of ivory. Naturals measure 37 mm\r\nfrom front of keyplate to cut line; total length from front to nameboard 95 mm. The\r\npivot-pin positions of the accidentals are further back than those of the naturals,\r\nand both rows of pivot pins are slightly further back in the treble than in the bass.\r\nThere is a front touch rail, positioned under the front ends of the accidental keys,\r\ntopped with green cloth.\r\nThe keylevers are of coniferous wood with a marked grain (not lime), much discoloured\r\nby dirt or possibly deliberately stained. They are roof-carved, but without\r\nthe usual scoops at each end of the carved section, and guided by metal blades\r\nworking in a rack.\r\nThe levers are numbered in ink in what may be a nineteenth-century hand. There\r\nare scribed lines across the levers in the balance pin positions, noticeably deeper in\r\nthe softer, spring-wood parts of the levers. A possible gauge mark ‘2’ can be seen on\r\nkeylever 13 (note c).\n\nMost keylevers have rectangular lead weights very neatly inserted just behind the\r\npivot-pin position; some have in addition pieces of sheet lead attached underneath\r\nwith nails.\n\n........\n\nTangents:\r\nBrass. The tangents of the lowest nine notes C–G# are capped with leather. The\r\nother tangents are all the same thickness (quite thin). Some are fixed with glue.\r\nSome have been repositioned in their levers. There are no signs of covered strings\r\non the leather-topped tangents (nor at the bridge). Many tangents are markedly\r\nbent to one side or the other. The spacing of the distal ends of the levers suggests\r\nmean-tone, not equal temperament (see, for example, the spacing of the levers of\r\nnotes f–f#–g).\n\n.........\n\nMiscellaneous:\r\nThe hitch-pins are bent back in a way that is reminiscent of square pianos. The\r\nstrings pass across the instrument at an agle of about 10°.\r\nThe present strings are those installed by John Barnes in 1965. The present listing\r\npresumably dates from the same restoration: not silk or wool, it could be cotton.\n........\n\n","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"CLAVICHORD\r\nPossibly English; about 1790 \r\nInscribed Peter Hicks fecit\r\nThe case is mahogany and the soundboard spruce. The instrument has sharps of ebony topped with ivory and the naturals are covered with ivory and fronted with boxwood. The instrument's range is C -d3.  \r\n \r\nKeyboard Catalogue No.: 34 \r\n \r\nPeter Hicks is otherwise unknown. Most clavichords in England of the 1700s  were imported from Hamburg. If this clavichord is English then it is a great rarity. It would seem that the instrument has been restored by an amateur.  \r\n \r\n\r\nW.7-1917\r\n\r\nGiven to this Museum by Dr. Thomas Lea Southgate.","date":{"text":"pre September 2000","earliest":null,"latest":"2000-08-31"}}],"partNumbers":["W.7:1-1917","W.7:2-1917"],"accessionNumberNum":"7","accessionNumberPrefix":"W","accessionYear":1917,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Clavichord","clavichord parts"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-12","recordCreationDate":"2001-05-16","availableToBook":true}}