Dolmetsch Clavichord 1936 - Sold

Arnold Dolmetsch was a true pioneer of our early keyboard world, and he led an amazing life.  Grandson of an organ-builder, and son of a piano-maker, he was born in Le Mans in 1858.  In the early 1880s, he studied at the Brussels Conservatoire and at the Royal College of Music in London.  Throughout the 1890s he gave many concerts on period instruments, and began restoring them in his workshop.  Between 1894 and 1897 he made six large clavichords, three 'Beethoven' pianos, and his first harpsichord.  After several trips to the USA, Italy, and France, he settled in the United States and made harpsichords, spinets, virginals, and clavichords with the piano-maker Chickering & Sons in Boston, Mass  during the period 1905 - 1911.  Due to the recession in the USA, he relocated to Paris, where he worked with Gaveau.  In 1914 he returned to England, and after some time in Londond in 1917 he established the family home and workshop in Haslemere, Surrey.  

He died in 1940 at the age of 82; this beautiful clavichord made in 1937 retains his personal touch.  

It bears his signature, just visible at the treble end of the row of wrestpins.

SOLD

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