Gardiner Houlgate
Lot 828
Single manual harpsichord by Giovanni Battista Boni da Cortona, Cortona, circa 1620, the case of false inner/outer construction, the exterior with later paintwork in shades of light green and creamy-brown divided by a dark brown band, the main portion of the lid interior painted with an extensive rural landscape with a bay in the distance, the keyboard flap painted recently in the style of the main section, the soundboard with a piered parchment rose, the keyboard with arcaded boxwood naturals and ebony accidentals, the partly enharmonic keyboard, compass currently FF, GG, AA, BB then C/E to c3, with broken octave and divided accidentals d♯, g♯, d1♯, g1♯, a1♯, one 8ft register, raised on two trestle stands.Length 6ft. 4⅞in., 195.3cm.; width 2ft. 6¼in., 76.8cm.; case depth 8⅞in. 22.6cm.*Recorded by Donald Boalch in Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord, 1440-1840 (3rd edition edited by Charles Mould), pp. 250-251. Referred to and illustrated in A History of the Harpsichord by Edwards L. Kittick, pp. 136-137, 485, note 23, Plate 6-4. Also see 'Some Notes on Giovanni Battista Boni da Cortona, Giralmo Zenti and others' by Frederick Hammond , Galpin Society Journal XL, December 1987, pp.37-47 for further information on the maker. A further reference to this harpsichord can be found in an article 'Italian Split-key Instruments with fewer than Nineteen Divisions to the Octave' by Christopher Stembridge and Denzil Wraight, the Journal of Performance Practice, 1994, No.2, p. 156, Item 7.The attribution to G. B. Boni is courtesy of Dr. Denzil Wraight who is quoted in Boalch in a letter to the owner "the lower moulding identifies the instrument quite conclusively…Thus I have no doubt about the attribution. The moulding referred to is illustrated in silhouette in The Historic Harpsichord, Volume III (editor Howard Schott) in the chapter 'The Identification and Authentication of Italian String Keyboard Instruments' by Denzil Wraight, p. 107. The moulding illustrated is from the Boni harpsichord in the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum.This harpsichord has been the subject of a number of alterations including conversion to a two-manual instrument. Under Mr. Mackenzie's instruction it was returned to what was believed to have been its original specification of a single 8ft. register. Boalch suggest that it had passed through the hands of Franciolini but it does not appear in any of his published catalogues. Other owners recorded by Boalch were Elizabeth Moss, Alec Hodsdon and Michael Thomas. A number of respected restorers have worked on the harpsichord in more recent times
