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This instrument was the height of 17th-century fashion in more ways than one. Its overall style suited a fashionable home and it was decorated with a painting of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen and an essential high-class accessory – a poodle. The virginal’s tall stand also served a practical purpose. It allowed women wearing fashionable but cumbersome dresses to play the instrument standing up.The largest and probably the best known of the surviving English virginals, this instrument was part of the original Raymond Russell collection, purchased by him in 1949. The instrument has a beautifully decorated interior with a painted park scene inside the lid, gilt papers, ivory studding and unusually large number of soundboard roses. However, when closed the instrument looks somewhat morbid with its coffered oak lid. (Raymond Russell Collection).
Virginal
Stephen Keene
United Kingdom
London
England
Europe

Instrument Information

Title

Virginal

Accession Number

4308

Collection

MIMEd; Raymond Russell Collection

Date Information

Date Made

1668

Period

17th century; 1660s

Gallery Information

No information recorded.

Maker Information

Maker Name

Stephen Keene

Maker Biography

Stephen Keene was a noted English harpsichord, virginal and spinet maker. He was born around 1640 in Sydenham in Oxfordshire. He was apprenticed to the noted English virginal maker Gabriel Townsend in London from 1655 to 1662 and became a Freeman of the Joiner’s Company in that year. He became a Master of the company in 1704/5 and is believed to have died around 1719. Several of the noted English keyboard instrument makers of the period were apprenticed to Keene during his long life.

Made In

City

London

Country

England

Description

Technical Description

Technical description: Rectangular English virginal with coffered lid. Compass 57 notes, F₁,G₁ - D₆ [FF,GG - d''']. One set of 8-ft strings. Unusually, the instrument has four decorative parchment roses. Three parchment roses in main soundboard, which is painted, and one behind the wrestpins.The natural keys are of snakewood with gilt embossed fronts; the accidentals of ivory.External coffer shaped case has oak mouldings and iron strap-hinges. Oak stand is modern. String lengths (plucking points): D₆ 132 (52), C₆ 151« (54), F₅ 215 (47), C₅ 287 (61), F₄ 395 (60), C₄ 535 (71), F₃ 731 (69), C₃ 913 (85), F₂ 1142 (90), C₂ 1361 (121), F₁ 1624 (153). Signature/Marks: Written in ink on the near edge of the jack-rail "Stephanus Keene Londini Fecit 1668". Decoration: Inside the lid there is a painting in tempera of a park or lake-side scene, there is a similar but damaged scene inside the keywell flap. The soundboard has paintings of flowers and birds. Embossed gilt papers decorate the front panels and line the inside of the case. Studding is of ivory or bone. Repair History: Repaired by Leslie Ward, 1950; later work by John Barnes; bridge repaired by Jonathan Santa Maria, 2013. Technical drawing available from the Friends of St Cecilia's Hall. Please see http://www.stceciliasfriends.org.uk/

Provenance

Purchased by Raymond Russell in 1949; ex- H.C.|Moffat, Goodrich Court, Ross-on-Wye.; Gift of Mrs Gilbert Russell, 1964.

Classification

Instrument

Virginal

Instrument Family

Keyboard

Hornbostel Sachs Classification

musical instrument; 314.122-6-8