SPINETS, virginals, and harpsichords were brought to the American colonies in English ships as early as 1645, when “An old pair of virginalls” appears in an inventory; and another, in 1654. In 1667 a pair of virginals is valued at two pounds. In his diary of 1699 Judge Samuel Sewall alludes to his wife’s virginals. In 1712 the Boston News Letter contained an advertisement that “the spinet would be taught,” and in 1716 the public were requested to “Note, that any Persons may have all Instruments of Music mended, or Virginals or Spinets strung & tun’d, at a Reasonable Rate, and likewise may be taught to play on any of the Instruments above mentioned.” From the wording of this advertisement it is evident that these instruments were no novelty.

I have not been able to learn of an existing virginal which was in use in this country, but occasionally a spinet is found. The expression a “pair” or “set” of virginals was used in the same manner as a “pair” or “set” of steps or stairs, and in England an oblong spinet was called a virginal, in distinction from the spinet of triangular shape, which superseded the rectangular, oblong form in which the earliest spinets were made. Both virginal and spinet had but one string to a key, and the tone of both was produced by a sort of plectrum which picked the string. This plectrum usually consisted of a crow quill, set in an upright piece of wood, called a “jack,” which was fastened to the back of the key. The depressing of the key by the finger caused the quill to rise, and as it passed the string, the vibration produced the musical tone, which is described by Dr. Burney as “A scratch with a sound at the end of it.” The name of the spinet is by some supposed to be derived from these quills,—from spina, a thorn. According to other authorities the name came from a maker of the instrument, named Spinetti. The virginal was so called because young maids were wont to play upon it, among them that perennial young girl, Queen Elizabeth. The most famous makers of spinets in England were Charles Haward or Haywood, Thomas and John Hitchcock, and Stephen Keene. In Pepys’s diary are the following entries:—

“April 4, 1668. Called upon one Haward that makes virginalls, and there did like of a little espinette and will have him finish it for me; for I had a mind to a small harpsichon, but this takes up less room.”

“July 15, 1668. At noon is brought home the espinette I bought the other day of Haward; cost me 5£.”

Illustration 281 shows a spinet in the Deerfield Museum, which formerly belonged to Miss Sukey Barker of Hingham, who must have been a much envied damsel. It is marked Stephanus Keene, which places the date of its make about 1690. The body of the spinet stands twenty-four inches from the floor. Its extreme length is fifty-six inches, and the keyboard of four and one-half octaves measures twenty-nine inches. There are but six keys left, but they are enough to show that the naturals were black and the sharps white. There is a row of fine inlaying above the keyboard, and the maker’s name is surrounded with painted flowers.

The spinet, as may be seen, was a tiny instrument, in shape similar to our modern grand piano. The body of the spinet was entirely separate from the stand, which was made with stretchers between the legs, of which there were three and sometimes four, so placed that one leg came under the narrow back end of the spinet, one under the right end of the front, and one or sometimes two at the left of the front. The instrument rested upon this table or trestle.

The name upon the majority of spinets found in this country is that of Thomas Hitchcock. His spinets are numbered and occasionally dated. There is a Thomas Hitchcock spinet owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society, numbered 1455, and one owned in Worcester, numbered 1519.

Illustration 282 shows a spinet which was owned by Elizabeth Hunt Wendell of Boston. It was probably an old instrument when she took it with her from Boston to Portland in 1766 upon her marriage to the Rev. Thomas Smith, known as Parson Smith of Portland. It is now owned by her great-great-grandaughter in Gorham, Maine. The board above the keys has two lines of inlaying around it, and is marked “Thomas Hitchcock Londoni fecit, 1390.” The front of the white keys is cut with curved lines, and the black keys have a line of white ivory down the centre. The parrot-back chair in the illustration is described upon page 168. Authorities seem to vary upon dates when the Hitchcocks made spinets. Mr. A. J. Hipkins of London, the well-known authority upon pianos, harpsichords, and spinets, writes me that he dates the Thomas Hitchcock spinets from 1664 to 1703, and those of John Hitchcock, the son of Thomas, from 1676 to about 1715. Mr. Hipkins says that the highest number he has met with upon Thomas Hitchcock’s spinets is 1547, so it is safe to date this spinet in Illustration 282, which numbers 1390, to about 1690.

By the latter half of the eighteenth century proficiency upon various musical instruments was not uncommon. John Adams in 1771 speaks of a young man of twenty-six, as “a great proficient in music, plays upon the flute, fife, harpsichord, spinet, etc.; a very fine Connecticut young gentleman.”

In 1768 in the Boston Chronicle appears the advertisement of John Harris, recently from England, “that he makes and sells all sorts of Harpsichords and Spinets,” and in 1769 the Boston Gazette says, “A few days since was shipped for Newport a very curious Spinet, being the first one ever made in America, the performance of the ingenious Mr. John Harris.” In 1770 the same paper praises an excellent “spinet” made by a Bostonian, “which for goodness of workmanship and harmony of sound is esteemed by the best judges to be superior to any that has been imported from Europe.” This would seem to indicate that a tone of superiority in musical matters was assumed by Boston at an early date. The statement with regard to the first spinet made in America is incorrect, for over twenty years earlier, in 1742, Hasselinck had made spinets in Philadelphia.

In the Essex Institute of Salem is a spinet made by Samuel Blythe of Salem, the bill for which, dated 1786, amounts to eighteen pounds.

The harpsichord, so named from its shape, was the most important of the group of contemporary instruments, the virginal, spinet, and harpsichord, the tone of which was produced with the quill and jack. The harpsichord had two strings to each key, and the instrument occupied the relative position that the grand piano does to-day, being much larger and having more tone than the spinet. Like the spinet, its manufacture ceased with the eighteenth century. Illustration 283 shows a harpsichord formerly owned by Charles Carroll, who was so eager to identify himself as a patriot, that he signed his name to the Declaration of Independence as Charles Carroll of Carrollton. This harpsichord was discovered twenty-five years ago in the loft of an old college building in Annapolis, where it had lain for fifty years. The Carroll coat of arms, painted upon porcelain and framed in gold, is fastened above the keyboard. The inscription upon this instrument is “Burkat Shudi et Johannes Broadwood, patent No. 955 Londini, Fecerant 1789, Great Poulteney Street, Golden Square.”

There are two banks of keys, with a range of five octaves, and three stops, which were intended to change the tone, two of them being marked harp and lute. The case is quite plain, of mahogany, with a few lines of inlaying above the keyboard and a line around the body and top. It is owned by William Knabe & Co. of Baltimore, and is one of fourteen Broadwood harpsichords known to exist.

That the harpsichord was not an uncommon instrument in this country during the latter half of the eighteenth century is shown by the number of advertisements of the harpsichord and its teachers.

Illustration 284 shows a clavichord or clavier, made about 1745. It is owned by Mr. John Orth of Boston. The clavichord, like its successor, the square piano, was of oblong shape. The musical tone was produced in a different manner from that of either the spinet or piano. Each key had at the back an upright “tangent” or wedge-shaped piece of brass, which, as the front of the key was depressed, rose and set the string of twisted brass wire in vibration, by pressing upon it, instead of picking it like the quill of the spinet and harpsichord. This pressure divided the string into two different lengths, the shorter length being prevented from vibrating by a band of cloth interlaced with the strings. The same interlaced cloth stopped the vibration of the longer division of the string, as soon as the pressure was taken from the key, thus allowing the tangent to fall. In the earlier clavichords one string had to serve to produce the tone for two or three different keys.

These instruments were called “gebunden,” or fretted. Later instruments are “bund frei” or free, having a string for each key. The clavichord player could feel the elasticity of the wire string, and could produce a sort of vibration of tone by employing the same method as that used in playing the violin, a pressure and vibration of the fleshy end of the finger while the note was held. The tone of the clavichord was very delicate, and it afforded far more power of expression than the spinet or harpsichord, which, however, were more brilliant, and entirely superseded the weaker clavichord in England. In Germany the clavichord has always been a favorite instrument even into the nineteenth century. It is probable that but few clavichords came to this country.

The piano e forte—soft and loud—was invented about 1720. The strings of the piano are struck by hammers instead of being picked by quills, and the force of the hammer strokes made a stronger frame necessary than that of the spinet or harpsichord, in order to hold the heavier strings.

Brissot de Warville wrote in 1788 that in Boston “one sometimes hears the forte piano, though the art is in its infancy.” He then soulfully bursts forth, “God grant that the Bostonian women may never, like those of France, acquire the malady of perfection in this art. It is never attained but at the expense of the domestic virtues.” According to this the domestic virtues must be a scarce quality in Boston at the present time.

In 1792 Messrs. Dodd & Claus, musical instrument manufacturers, 66 Queen Street, New York, announced that “the forte piano is become so fashionable in Europe that few polite families are without it.” As this country kept pace with Europe in the fashions, we can assume that the forte piano formed at the close of the eighteenth century a part of the furniture of the polite families of the United States.

The date of a piano can be approximately determined by its legs. The earliest pianos had four slender legs similar to the legs of the spinet or harpsichord. The next instruments had six legs, increased in size and fluted or carved. Then the number was reduced to four, and the legs were still larger, and more elaborately carved, until 1840 the ugly legs found commonly upon the square piano were the only styles employed.

Illustration 285 is a fine example of an early pianoforte. Like the spinet and clavichord, the body of the instrument is separate from the lower frame, which is fastened together at the corners with large screws like a bedstead. This may have been for convenience in transportation, and it is possible that while the top containing the works was imported, the supporting frame may have been made in this country. There are four slender inlaid legs, and one pedal, and under the body of the piano runs a most convenient shelf for music. The case is of mahogany, with rows of fine inlaying in colors, having two rows of different width around the top of the lid. The board above the keys is of satinwood, and it has, beside the delicate frets at each side, charmingly painted garlands of sweet peas, a flower very popular in England at that time, about 1805. The name plate has the inscription “Muzio Clementi & Co., Cheapside, London,” and the number of the piano is 3653. It measures sixty-seven inches in length, and has a compass of five and one-half octaves. There is a line of inlaying around the inside of this piano, which is finished carefully in every detail. The music-rack is of simple form like the rack in Illustration 286. The music may also rest, as in the illustration, upon the edge of the lid, when put back. This piano is owned by the writer, who bought it in Falmouth, Massachusetts. It was said to be the first piano brought into Falmouth, or upon the “Cape,” and in looking at this dainty instrument, which had never left the room in which it found its home, a hundred years ago, one can imagine the wonder and envy of the little seaport village when a whaling captain, after a successful voyage, gave the piano to his daughter. Nothing could sound more quaint than a Gluck or Mozart minuet played upon its tinkling keys.

The founder of the Astor family about 1790 to 1800 made one branch of his business the importing of pianos, which were labelled with his name and which are quite commonly met with. Illustration 286 shows an Astor piano owned by Mrs. Sanford Tappan of Newburyport. The style of this piano is similar to that of the “Clementi” in Illustration 285, but it lacks the delicate ornamentation of the Clementi piano. In the Columbian Centinel of 1806 is an advertisement with a woodcut of an instrument very like this.

There is an Astor piano in Salem, described as having four legs in the front, indicating that it was made as late as 1815. It had two pedals, one being used to prolong the tones. The other pedal served to produce a novel and taking effect, by lifting a section of the top of the piano lid, which was then allowed to fall suddenly, the slamming serving to imitate the firing of cannon. The young lady who owned the piano created a great sensation by playing battle pieces with this startling accompaniment.

Illustration 287 shows the change in the legs, this piano having six legs, which are considerably larger. The piano was made by Clementi, and is numbered 10522. It is of light mahogany, and has a row of dark mahogany veneer around its frame. The feet and tops of the six legs are of brass, like the handles to the three drawers, and a brass moulding goes around the frame. The piano stool, also of mahogany, is of a somewhat later date. This piano and stool are owned by W. S. G. Kennedy, Esq., of Worcester. This style of piano was in use from 1820 to 1830.

Illustration 288 shows one of the curious combinations which the cabinet-makers of about 1800 seemed to be so fond of designing. Their books have complicated drawings of tables and desks with mechanical devices for transforming the simple-looking piece of furniture into one full of compartments, drawers, and boxes, with contrivances which allow surprising combinations to spring out. Sheraton, who was a shrewd observer, said, “A fancifulness seems most peculiar to the taste of females”; and this piece of furniture was made, apparently, to appeal to that “fancifulness.”

Between the works of the piano and the cover is a tray divided into compartments to hold toilet and writing utensils, ink-bottle, sand-sifter, stationery, pins, and sewing-implements, and over the keyboard rests a long tray for similar articles. These trays can be removed when the piano is to be used. There is a front panel which lets down, forming a writing-table, and a mirror is set in the face of the rest that supports the lid when raised.

Thus the lady for whom all this was designed, after using it as a dressing-table, could play the piano and look at her own pretty face in the mirror while she played and sang. This combination of piano, dressing-table, and writing-desk is owned by the Rev. James H. Darlington, D.D., of Brooklyn, New York.

In 1829 the manufacture of pianofortes had increased so that during that year twenty-five hundred pianos were made in the United States, chiefly in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

The piano in Illustration 289 belongs to Mrs. Ada Grisier of Auburn, Indiana, and is an unusually fine specimen of the six-legged piano fashionable about 1830. The case is of mahogany and is inlaid with lines of brass, while around the body run two rows, of different width, of brass moulding. The legs are large, and elaborately carved, and are set in brass standards. On each corner of the frame is a design in gilt. There is one wooden pedal, and the range of the piano is five and one-half octaves. The name of the maker has been obliterated.

The piano in Illustration 290 is owned by Mrs. Louis M. Priest of Salem, New York. The body is of rosewood inlaid with brass, the lid being of mahogany, like the elaborately carved trestle-shaped supports. It has two drawers for holding music, and one pedal, the standard for which is a carved lyre with a mirror behind its strings. The keyboard has a range of six octaves. The name upon the front is Peter Erben, 103 Pump St., New York. Peter Erben was a music-teacher whose address from 1826 to 1827 was 103 Pump Street, which determines the date of this piano. The writer knows of four pianos with the carved mahogany trestle-supports, all with the name of Peter Erben as maker, though it is probable that, like modern pianos, the works were bought, and whoever wished might have his name upon the name-plate, since Peter Erben is in the New York directories for thirty years as “Musick teacher” or “Professor of musick” only.

The piano-stool in Illustration 291 was made to use with the piano in Illustration 290. The wide spread to the three feet gives the effect of a table base, but there is no doubt that this was made originally to use for a piano-stool. The little weather-beaten house, in which the piano and stool had always stood, possesses a ghost story of a young girl who was starved to death by her miser brother, and who was said to haunt the house. This piano and stool give the impression of the reverse of a miser, and the poor ghost must have been before their day. The stool is now owned by the writer, but is neither practical nor comfortable, the feet being much in the way.

Illustration 292 shows a piano of most elaborate design, made about 1826. There is no maker’s name upon the piano. The frame is of mahogany and has a brass moulding around the body, and brass rosette handles to the drawers. Around each square carved panel upon the front legs is a brass beading, and the lions’ claws on the front legs and the sockets upon the back legs are of brass.

The front legs are elaborately carved like table bases, and the three pedals have a support that is a cross between a lyre and a wreath. The keyboard has six octaves, and the music-rack is very simple.

Illustration 293 shows two piano-stools made between 1825 and 1830. The stool with four fluted legs was sold with a piano made by Wood, Small, & Co., of London, which has six legs fluted in the same manner. The other stool has a base like the claw-and-pillar table, and the sides of the seat are carved dolphins, whose tails turn up and support a carved rail to form a low back for the seat. This stool belongs to the writer.

The “table piano” in Illustration 294 is marked as being made by John Charters, Xenia, Ohio, which alone would attract attention, aside from the curious construction of the base, which places the date of the piano about 1835. The pedals are quite concealed as one stands by this piano, and the whole design is clumsy and poor. The music-rack seems to have remained unchanged for many years, and from the earliest piano shown, made in 1800, until the large square piano of 1840, the music-rack is the same, simply constructed of four pieces of wood which are put together with pivots, so that by pushing one end of the top piece they all slide and fold down together, in order that the piano may be closed.

Illustration 295 shows a Chickering piano made in 1833, of a design entirely different from the other pianos shown, and of great elegance and richness. The mahogany case is inlaid with the heavy bands of plain brass, and the legs are pillars with Ionic capitals. The music-rack is of the same simple form as the one upon the preceding piano, and the one pedal is fastened into a lyre-shaped support.

Illustration 296 shows a music-stand made about 1835, owned by Mrs. John D. Wing, of Millbrook, New York. The rest for the music is of the favorite lyre shape, which seems especially adapted to this purpose. The stand is of mahogany and is very pretty and graceful.

Illustration 297 shows a music-stand owned by Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston. It is of mahogany, and its date is about 1835. The upper part with the music-rest can be lowered or raised, and is held in place by pins thrust through the small holes in the supports. The stand is somewhat heavy in effect, but very firm and secure.

Illustration 298 shows a dulcimer which is in the Deerfield Museum. It has an extremely plain case, and must have been, when new, an inexpensive instrument. The dulcimer of early times was a small, triangular-shaped instrument, to be laid upon a table. Above the sounding-board were stretched wire strings, which were struck with small hammers held in the hand, and doubtless the piano was first suggested by the dulcimer and its hammers.

The heads of the hammers were covered with hard and soft leather to give a loud or soft tone. The instrument in the illustration was probably made from 1820 to 1830, during which time the dulcimer was quite popular, especially in the country, where the piano was too costly a luxury.

Music-books were published for the dulcimer, and it retained some popularity in country villages until ousted by the melodeon.

Illustration 299 shows a set of musical glasses called a harmonica. The fine ladies in “The Vicar of Wakefield” would talk of nothing but “pictures, taste, Shakespeare, and the musical glasses.” This was in 1761, and the musical glasses were fashionable before that, for Gluck in 1746 played “a concerto on twenty-six drinking glasses, tuned with spring water.” Franklin invented an instrument for the musical glasses, which he called the Armonica, for which famous composers wrote music, and in which the glasses were arranged upon a rod which turned with a crank, while below was a trough of water which moistened the glasses as they dipped into it.

There is a Franklin Armonica in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Brown collection. In Watson’s “Annals” is a description of a visit to Franklin in Paris. It says: “He conducted me across the room to an instrument of his own invention which he called the ‘Armonica.’ The music was produced by a peculiar combination of hemispherical glasses. He played upon it and performed some Scotch pastorales with great effect. The exhibition was truly striking.”

The box in Illustration 299 holds twenty-four glasses, which, when used, are filled with water, and are tuned by the amount in each glass. The finger is dipped in the water and rubbed on the edge of the glass, producing a sound of penetrating tone. The stand and box in this illustration are of mahogany, and make an ornamental piece of furniture.

A stand for music is shown in Illustration 300, owned by J. J. Gilbert, Esq., of Baltimore. It is elegant in design and possesses also the very desirable merit in a rest for music, of standing firmly upon its four lion’s claw feet, with the heavy turned and reeded post to support the top and the lyre-shaped music rack.

The mahogany case for music books in Illustration 301 is owned by Dwight M. Prouty, Esq. It has a drawer for sheet music and a shelf below, beside the five compartments for books, with the lyre-shaped divisions of solid wood, and the ends open, with lyre strings of wood.

Illustration 302 shows a harp-shaped piano, made by AndrÉ Stein, d’Augsburg. It is owned by B. J. Lang, Esq., of Boston, and was made about 1800. Pianos of this style are occasionally found in this country. The shape of the top shows how the strings run, the effect being similar to a grand piano stood upon its end. The silk draperies are the original ones, and are faded from red to a soft dead leaf color, which is most artistic and harmonious. The six pedals are supposed to produce different effects to correspond with the following names: fagotti, piano, forte, pianissimo, triangle, cinelle.

The upright piano, known then as a cottage piano, was invented in 1800. Illustration 303 shows a small upright piano said to have belonged to Lady Morgan, the “wild Irish girl.” The case is an exquisite example of the work of an English cabinet-maker, from 1800 to 1810, and may have been that of Sheraton himself. The lower panels are of satinwood, with the frame and the oval piece in the centre of mahogany, outlined with ebony and white holly.

The upper middle panel is filled with a sunburst made of pleated silk. The side-panels are of satinwood, framed in bird’s-eye maple, outlined with mahogany, and the ovals in the centres are of mahogany, with fine lines of ebony and white holly. Altogether, it is as dainty an instrument as any lady could wish for her boudoir.

Illustration 304 shows a Chickering upright piano made in 1830. The frame is of mahogany, and the front of the upper part is filled with a sunburst made of pleated silk, from which this style of piano was sometimes called a sunburst piano.

A very beautiful and ornamental piano is shown in Illustration 305, owned by James H. Darlington, D.D., of Brooklyn, New York. The body of the piano is made of rosewood. The strings are arranged like those in a grand piano, but the sounding-board extends only the distance of the piano body; above that the strings are exposed like those of a harp. The wooden frame upon which the wires are strung is supported by a post of wood elaborately carved and gilded. The keyboard has a range of seven octaves. Upon the inside of the cover is the inscription “New York Piano Company—Kohn patent.”

The story is that a piano-maker in New York vowed he would make the most beautiful piano in the world. One like this was the result, and it was bought by A. T. Stewart, at that time, about 1840, the merchant prince of New York. Six others were made like the original piano, and they are scattered over the country, one being in the Brown collection of musical instruments in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Illustration 306 shows the form in which the square piano was finally made, and which, with few variations, continued fashionable until the introduction of the present style of upright pianos, since when there have been practically no square pianos manufactured. This piano was made by Henry Hawkey of New York, about 1845, and it is noteworthy because the keys are made of mother-of-pearl, and the scrolls above the keyboard are inlaid in mother-of-pearl. The case is covered with rosewood veneering, and the legs are large and clumsy. The music-rack and pedal support are similar in style to those now in use.

Proficiency upon the piano and spinet would appear to have comprised the chief accomplishments in instrumental music of the young ladies of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as far as we can judge by mention of such accomplishments. But it seems reasonable to suppose that where a few English ladies employed their fair hands upon the harp, there were not lacking a similar number of Americans who also appreciated the opportunity which that classic instrument affords of displaying the grace and beauty of a rounded arm and wrist. Even in our own day, the list of those who play the harp is restricted, and it must have been the same in early days, hence the lack of allusions to the harp. When Lady Morgan, the “wild Irish girl,” was creating such a sensation in London with her harp-playing, it is certain that she had imitators in this country.

Christopher Columbus Baldwin, in his diary of 1832, speaks of Madam Papanti, who at that time lived in Worcester with her husband, the famous dancing-teacher. She gave music lessons, possibly upon the harp, for Mr. Baldwin tells of her playing that instrument upon Sundays at Dr. Bancroft’s church, while her husband played the French horn, “which, with two flutes, a base viol, and violin, make very good musick.”

Illustration 307 shows a very beautiful harp made previous to 1800, belonging to Mrs. Reed Lawton of Worcester. In construction it is not very different from the modern harp, although considerably smaller. It is exquisitely carved, and instead of being gilded is painted in colors, and finished with a varnish like the vernis martin, the general effect being a golden brown. The harp which Marie Antoinette played upon is still preserved, and is very like this one.

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