Peter Redstone Harpsichords

This spinet is our simplest and least expensive. It is early in both style and sound.  It is small and easily transported and is very stable. Normally of oak, it can be made in walnut, cherry, or mahogany should you so choose. As shown, the price is from $6,200. The compass is GG/BB-d' ' ', 52 notes and is 4'8" (1450mm) long.
	This spinet is after one of c.1700 by Cawton  Aston in the Burnett Collection at Finchcocks.  The case is of walnut, with a cedar interior.  The compass is GG/BB-d'''. The original has  split sharps in the bass: this one has not, but  adding the two extra notes would present no  problem. As shown the price is from $8,900
This is one of our most popular single manual harpsichords, based on a 1742 Mahoon instrument. It is 6'3" long (1905mm) and has a compass of GG - e''', 58 notes, with an 8' + 8' specification.  Although the original did not have a buff stop,  we usually install one. The bass tone is superb  for so small an instrument. the price is from $14,000  depending on options.
	The single manual harpsichord is after  a 1720 Hancock, that is strung all in brass like an Italian instrument, but has a more singing tone. The interior is in  lacewood and it has authentic cast brass  hinges as did the original. The compass is GG-e' ' ', 58 notes and it has two 8'  choirs and a buff stop. As shown, the price is from $14,500.
Based on a c.1720 Francis Coston double manual harpsichord, this is my favorite! It has a great "early" sound and is a most elegant instrument. It is about 7'6"  (2285mm) long and the compass is GG-e' ' '. It has 2x8' (one doglegged) and a 4'.  There's a buff on the dogleg choir, but a  French coupler is not impossible. In  walnut, with a lacewood interior, and with authentic cast hinges the price as shown  is from $27,500.
	This instrument is based on a 1770 Shudi & Broadwood, and is 8'9"(2670mm) long.  With 66 note keyboards, it goes down to CC  (bottom C on the piano), and has a HUGE  sound. It has a typical English disposition, with 8'+8' dogleg +4' on the lower manual, and 8'dogleg or 8' lute (nazale) on the  upper. The lower 8' has a buff. As shown the price is from $42,000.
Somewhat of a rarity, this is an English fortepiano, a copy of a 1772 Backers. It  has a deeper keystroke than a Viennese, but is still very light. It is 7'4" (2235mm)  long and has two pedals, dampers and una  corda. As shown, it is $22,500. We also  make a small, 6' (1830mm) copy of a c.1775 Culliford that is from $14,500. Both are 5  octaves FF-f' ' '.

In addition to the above we make other models. Please do not hesitate  to contact us for special requirements.

My first encounter with the harpsichord occurred when I was 16. Landowska playing a Handel suite was like hitting me over the head with a brick! The result was my going to London at my first opportunity to the Victoria and Albert museum to look at a harpsichord. I received permission to measure both the harpsichord and a clavichord. I concluded that although a harpsichord was beyond me, a clavichord was not. So I went home and made one!

From that point on, until I sold my first harpsichord in Guernsey in 1965, I spent all my spare time haunting the established English makers; Goble, Feldberg, Dolmetsch, Thomas Goff, Hugh Gough, and above all, Michael Thomas, from whom I learned the secrets of a good soundboard. Luckily for me I was a natural when came to woodworking, and in no time at all I could cut dovetails by hand that fit perfectly!

I moved to Claremont, Virginia in 1973 with Katie my wife, and since that time, we have made more than 50 instruments together, whilst raising a couple of kids, my total now being more than 70 instruments since I began. For some years I was the Musical Instrument Conservator to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, leaving in 1988 to pursue making my own instruments full time. During that time I had the privilege of working with many antique instruments, including a magnificent 1762 Jacob Kirckman double manual harpsichord.

I have never worked in the mainstream of French and Flemish instruments; having early on grown to love beautiful woods. Therefore the English, veneered tradition was just right for me. Over the years I have made HUGE and decadent Shudi copies that are nearly nine feet long and of which singers complain because they are too loud, and I have made copies of unusual early oak-cased ones. These days, apart from the occasional French and Italian one, I home in on the period when the harpsichord was at its zenith, around 1680 to 1740, since the sound of that type of instrument was what was heard by the great harpsichord composers!

My quest for the less-than-usual has resulted in a couple of firsts also. In 1974 I made the first copy of an English square piano when I copied a Pohlman of 1778, and the first copy of an English grand piano in 1981, when I copied the 1772 Backers in the Russell Collection.

In recent years, we have made a number of spinets, which are both beautiful and practical, taking up little room, and are very stable. They are ideal for musicians to lug around the country in the back of a car, and can often be played without even having to be tuned on arrival.

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Finchcocks Living Museum of Music

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