18th Century and Earlier Musical Instruments

18th.entury unframed pencil drawing of an Harpist.

A carved Continental wood pocket sundial and compass, with precision carved numbers and a small stringline, 1.5 cm high, 6.5 cm wide, 4.5 cm deep

A heavy bronze cow bell with clanger. Sharp loud sound. Dimensions: 9 3/8" H x 5 5/8" W Condition: Wear consistent with age, nicely patinated.

This Pleyel concert grand piano crafted in Paris in 1870 is a timeless masterpiece that embodies the elegance and craftsmanship of 19th-century French piano manufacturing. Pleyel ins...

Untitled print of a man from Cairo, Egypt. The man is playing an (music) instrument. This print originates from 'Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn, door de vermaardste deelen van Klein As...

17th century violin possibly Italian. Dendrochronology says some of the timber is 17th century. There is good voulme, resonance and and tone. We would be happy to send you a recordin...

Decorate a music room, den or office with this elegant and colorful antique wall mounted lyre. Crafted in Italy circa 1780, the large Classical Roman musical instrument featured two ...

Antique print titled 'De Mizmoune'. Old print depicting a music sheet with the 'Mizmoune' (Moorish song), a Dance and a Turkish song. Originates from the first Dutch editon of an int...

Rare Low Walnut Italian Baroque Period Cellist lectern.

Antique George III period square piano by Beck English, 1788 Height 81cm, width 148cm, depth 52cm This elegant instrument is a square piano, a type popul...

Decorate a living room with this elegant antique pedal harp. Crafted in France circa 1780, the single action musical instrument features 36 recently repl...

This is an antique mounted school bell. An English, bronze bell on oak and pine plinth, dating to the Georgian period, circa 1800. Of superb proportion ...

Antique print, titled: 'Japansche kamerspeelders.' - ('Japanese musicians'). Four chamber musicians are playing on native instruments outside. Arnol...

A collection of 18 framed prints from engravings of musical instruments from the book by Gabinetto Armonico, which was published in 1722. The book had a total of 150 instruments. The...

A very rare Louis XVI period serinette or bird organ in the form of a transitional style gilt bronze mounted and marquetry inlaid miniature commode in the manner of gilbert, by Robert Richard, Paris. With a label for ' RICHARD - maitre facteur d’orgues et mécanicien / Rue de richelieu à la bibliothèque Du Roy / Paris 1775'. This rare Serinette or Bird Organ has a wooden cylinder barrel mounted by twelve pins and linked to twelve sound pipes. A crank attached to the front panel controls the bellows that activates the mechanism. The exceptional marquetry inlaid case is in the form of a gilt bronze mounted transitional style miniature commode. The top of the commode is inlaid with a landscape scene with buildings, opening to an interior with an allegory of Love Conquering All, represented by two doves perching on a bow and quiver. The front of the commode depicts two obelisks centred by a Fine musical trophy and each side is inlaid with panels depicting the Medici Vase. The back of the commode is decorated with floral marquetry. A closely related Serinette dating from circa 1770, also in the form of a miniature commode, with the marquetry case stamped by the master marqueteur Leonard Boudin, is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. The term serinette is derived from serine, French for finch. The instrument worked like a small barrel organ with a barbed cylinder, wind box and lead pipes and produced a high, thin sound in imitation of birds. Other versions included a merline, which copied blackbirds and a turlutaine, which copied curlews. Used to teach caged birds to sing tunes, different barrels could be inserted to train different birds. It first appeared in France circa 1730 and became a popular drawing-room toy for fashionable women. An interesting painting commissioned in 1751 for Louis XV by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and now in the collection of the Louvre, depicts a refined lady seated in her salon playing a bird organ to encourage her bird to sing. Robert Richard Robert Richard was a Parisian organ and harpsichord maker and the mécanicien du roi to Louis XV and Louis XVI and was based in the Bibliothèque du Roi in rue de Richelieu. Initially working alongside the Cliquot family who acted as 'facteur d'orgue du Roi', he is recorded as building an organ for the church of Notre-Dame de Quebec, in Montreal in 1753 (destroyed in 1759) and as the inventor of a mechanical concert shown in an engraving by d'Eisen in 1769. Canon Jean Marie De La Corne described Robert Richard as : ''Le plus habile ouvrier de paris, fameux mechanitien et Homme de probité''. French, Dated 1775. Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, The French Furniture of the 17th century, The Editions of the Amateur, 2008 Count Francois de Salverte, Cabinetmakers of the 18th century, Editions of Art and History, 1934 Raymond Russell, Victoria and Albert Museum Catalogue of Musical Instruments, Volume I - Keyboard Instruments,(London, 1968; p. 69.) Elizabeth Miller...