TONY CHINNERY HARPSICHORDS

This instrument is a copy of an anonymous harpsichord in the Cà Rezzonico museum in Venice. It probably dates from the same period as the Grimaldi, the original extension of GG-c''' is the same, as is the string scaling. In my version I have extended the top to d''' plus the transposing possibility 415/440. The place of construction of the original is not known, but the black, white and gold decoration do give it a Venetian look. The soundboard is in cypress instead of fir. This gives it a gentler sound than the Grimaldi. A unique feature of this instrument is that the stops are controlled by the ebony knobs on each side of the keyboard (under the gilded scrolls). The instrument shown here was built for the Venice Conservatory

Listen to the Ca Rezzonico harpsichord:
registers: 8'
registers: 8'+8'

The front board is made of about 150 pieces of ebony , bone and mother of pearl.