| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 5 parts. - Octave Virginals
- Key
- Key
- Removable Tray
- Spare Strings
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| Materials and techniques | Ebony veneer, applied silver ornament, enamel medallions and spruce soundboard |
| Brief description | German, Augsburg, 1590-1610 |
| Physical description | The case is veneered in ebony, decorated with silver ornament in the form of strapwork surrounding small circular and oval medallions variously embellished with etching, engraving and enamelling. The underside is fitted with a mirror. Both the lid and the plinth of the virginals contain hidden compartments for writing materials. The virginals' lid is fitted with a sliding slat at the top, which conceals a hidden compartment, and its plinth contains a drawer with a secret catch. The soundboard is spruce and contains a rose of cut-out paper.
On the inner side of the top there are three hexagonal windows decorated by the allegorical figures of four senses: hearing, taste, touch and sight. On opening the small openings on the silver gilded plaques, one can see biblical scenes. On the outer side of the casket the enamels depict the seven liberal arts and the whole ensemble is covered with floral motifs in silver and enamel.
The decoration is characteristic of the highly prestigious cabinets d'Allemagne, made by Augsburg silversmiths. A very similar example, in the National Museum of Hungary in Budapest, is thought to have been built by Johannes Klebiller, using designs of Lucas Kilian. |
| Dimensions | - Length: 45cm
- Width: 24cm
- Height: 18.75cm
- Weight: 6.58kg
Weighed by Lizzie Bisley |
| Production type | Unique |
| Marks and inscriptions | |
| Gallery label | OCTAVE SPINET, German (Augsburg), ebonised wood and applied silver decoration and enamel medallions. Sharps of stained pearwood and naturals covered with bone. The instrument's range is G -g2, a2 (lacking G sharp).
Museum No.: 4265-1857
Keyboard Catalogue No.: 14
The decoration is characteristic of the highly prestigeous cabinets d'Allemagne, made by Augsburg silversmiths. A very similar example, in the National Museum of Hungary in Budapest, is thought to have been built by Johannes Klebiller, using designs of Lucas Kilian.
(1/1/1992) |
| Object history | Musical portions restored and repainted by John Barnes in 1964
Report by John Barnes on the restoration of the instrument:
WRITING CASE VIRGINAL
The virginal built into this writing case is, of course, a musical toy and not intended for serious music making. All its parts are reproductions in miniature of standard instrument practice cleverly adapted to take the minimum space which is possible in practice. The natural keys, faced with bone and fronted with gilt embossed paper, are guided at the back by wire pins running in vertical slots on the key frame. The sharps, however, are only guided by the rear ends of the adjacent natural keys. The sharps, of stained pearwood topped with a dark veneer, originally had a gilt design on part of their upper surfaces and have been repivoted further back to ease the touch. The absence of scored lines on the natural keys suggests a fairly late date.
The jacks are interesting and suggest that some thought and experiment convinced the maker that the pivot needs to be very close to the quill when the quill is so short. The holly tongue is set to one side, suggesting that dampers were originally intended to be fitted in the wider portion of the forked part of the pear body. Presumably the maker later decided against this.
The underguide to the jacks was replaced as it had split and was unserviceable. The replacement is reinforced by thin leather like the corresponding part of the soundboard.
The strings were modern, brass and too thick. Brass strings were probably intended since the scaling is very short, c' ' ' being 4 1/2",
c' ', 8 1/4", c' 14", and because it looks more decorative than steel. In order to sound well and avoid excessive side thrust on the upper part of the right hand bridge the strings need to be much thinner than usual. |
| Summary | In the 1600s playing keyboard instruments well was considered a princely virtue, as was the collecting of outstanding curiosities. Cabinets, used for storing smaller curiosities, were made in large numbers in Augsburg (Germany) at this time, and the most prestigious examples were decorated in the same way as this instrument. Both the base and lid of this octave virginals are fitted with ingeniously hidden compartments, a speciality of Augsburg cabinetmakers. This instrument could be regarded as an exquisite toy, and more suitable for a prince than a professional musician.
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| Bibliographic references | - Musical Instruments as Works of Art (HMSO 1968)
Figure 19 A small octave-spinet built inside a writing-box of ebony decorated with applied silver strapwork ornaments, and engraved and enamelled plaques. As can be seen there is a mirror inside the lid. There is a secret drawer in the base, and a compartment, with sliding top, in the lid. (No. 4265-1857). Although this instrument must be regarded as something of a toy, it has been restored, to playing order and successfully recorded by the BBC.
Figure 20 A detail of the inside of the lid showing the fine silver ornament. Silver-mounted ebony cabinets and boxes decorated in this manner were a speciality of the city of Augsburg during the second quarter of the seventeenth century. Some even more elaborate boxes of this kind are in the Museum collection.
- Schott, Howard; Baines; Anthony; Yorke, James, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Part I: Keyboard instruments by Howard Schott. Part II: Non-keyboard instruments by Anthony Baines. [Reprint 2002 of single volume catalogue with additional information].
London, V&A Publications, 1998, pp.51-52
14. OCTAVE SPINET, anonymous, German, c. 1625-50 Mus. No. 4265-1857
1. The instrument is unsigned.
2. The keyboard compass is of thirty-eight notes, G-g2, a2 (lacking g2-sharp). The standard measurement is 387mm. The bone covered naturals measure 71mm long and 18mm wide. They bear fronts of gilded embossed paper. The keys are not marked with a scored line dividing off the key-heads from the tails. The sharps are of pearwood stained black to resemble ebony, topped by a veneer of dark wood (possibly ebony) on which there are traces of gilt designs on part of the upper surface.
3. Thirteen of the jacks are modern replacements. Rather than being numbered, the originals are marked with the names of the notes they play in German letter notation. They move in a leathered register flush with, rather than on top of, the soundboard. The jack tongues are of holly.
4. The strings are modern replacements. The scaling and plucking points are as follows:
G 391mm (24mm)
c 352mm (43mm)
c1 211mm (37mm)
c2 109mm (40mm)
a2 56mm (38mm)
5. The case is veneered in ebony, decorated with applied silver ornament in the form of strapwork surrounding small circular and oval medallions variously embellished with fine etching, engraving and enamelling. The lid contains a box, of which the lid forms a sloping writing-desk. A mirror is in the underside of the lid. The spinet stands upon a sturdy plinth containing a drawer with a secret catch, fitted to hold writing materials. The instrument measures 450mm long, 240mm wide and 187.5mm high at the back. The soundboard is of spruce (or pine) and contains a delicately cut-out paper rose.
This is an example of the cabinets d'Allemagne produced by the silversmiths of Augsburg as expensive presents suitable for display in Cabinets of Curiosities. They came in many forms and sizes and in a wide range of qualities.
6. The instrument was purchased in 1857 for £44.
7. The miniature scaling of the spinet, suggesting a possible pitch of a twelfth above the prevailing norms, and the tiny dimensions of the keyboard, far too small for an adult hand even of small proportions, might suggest that this instrument was merely a toy or, at most, an object of purely decorative interest. However, the sound quality is remarkably fine, with a clear, bright and powerful tone. Although without any indication of its maker, the spinet is similar to a writing-case spinet by Samuel Bide,mann the Younger of Augsburg (1600-after 1661) with an automatic playing mechanism that performs six stylized keyboard dances (Rück Collection, Germanic National Museum, Nuremberg, No. MIR 1223, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Augsburger Barock — Augsburg, 1960], No. 696, Ill. No. 341). The tunes themselves, indicative of the type of music playable on a miniature spinet of this sort, are transcribed in Alexander Buchner's Mechanical Musical Instruments (Batch-worth Press, n.d.).
The casework was restored in the Museum's Conservation Department in 1964. Two missing oval enamelled plaques were replaced with etched silver plaques. Shortly thereafter, Mr John Barnes restored the mechanism to playing order, replacing one jack of later date and twelve missing jacks.
German stringed keyboard instruments of such early date are of the greatest rarity. The dating of the present instrument is based on both its decorative features and its keyboard compass. An upper limit a2 without g2 sharp is found in the keyboard instruments of the period and their repertoire. Compare, for instance, the Museum's positive organ, possibly by Fritzsche of Dresden, of about 1627, which has a similar arrangement of its top notes (see No. 13 [in the same catalogue]).
- Carl Engel, A Descriptive Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the South Kensington Museum. London, Science and Art Department, 1874, pp.269-270
4265.—'57. VIRGINAL. Ebony, enriched with appliqué open-work tracery, in silver ; in the under side of the lid is a mirror. German. About 1600. L. 1 ft. 6 1/2 in., W. 11 in. (Bought, 44l.)
The instrument has metal strings, one for each tone, which are twanged by means of small portions of quill, attached to slips of wood called " jacks," and provided with thin metal springs. Its construction is therefore similar to that of the spinet and harpsichord. Its compass embraces three octaves and a whole tone, thus [illus.]
But the pitch of the instrument was probably originally higher than indicated by the notation. The highest semitone, G-sharp, is omitted. Crowquills were most commonly used in the construction of such instruments; but other materials, as for instance leather, whalebone, and even elastic slips of metal, were occasionally adopted instead.
The virginal is said to have obtained its name from having been intended especially to be played by young ladies. The statement of some writers that it was called virginal in compliment to Queen Elizabeth, is refuted by the fact of its being mentioned among the musical instruments of King Henry VIII in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Probably the name was originally given to it in honour of the Virgin Mary, since the virginal was used by the nuns for accompanying their hymns addressed to the Holy Virgin. It was made of various sizes, but always small in comparison with our square pianoforte. The Italians, about three hundred years ago, constructed a small portable instrument of this kind, which they called ottavino (or octavina) because its pitch was an octave higher than that of the clavicembalo, or harpsichord.
Queen Elizabeth was a performer on the virginal as well as on the lute. Sir James Melville, the Scotch ambassador, records in his memoirs an interview with Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1564, in which he heard her play upon the virginal: - "Then sche asked wither the Quen [Mary of Scotland] or sche played best. In that I gaif hir the prayse." During the Shakspearean age a virginal generally stood in the barbers' shops for the amusement of the customers. The instrument had evidently retained its popularity at :the time of the Great Fire of London; for Pepys (Diary, September 2, 1666) records;—"River full of lighters and boats taking in goods, and good goods swimming in the water; and only I observed that hardly one lighter or boat in three that had the goods of a house in, but there was a pair of virginalls in it."
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