It is probable that during the first quarter of the nineteenth century the wealthy Southern planters refurnished their homes in the prevailing Empire style. The pier-table in Illustration [279] is one of a pair found in Virginia, which were made about 1830. The chief motif in the design seems to be dolphins’ heads, which form the feet, and the base of the front supports to the top.
Illustration [280] shows a small work-table of curious shape, with the octagon-shaped interior divided into little boxes for sewing-materials. The middle compartment extends down into the eight-sided pillar. The work-boxes are covered by the top of the table, which lifts upon hinges. This table belongs to Mrs. E. A. Morse of Worcester.
CHAPTER IX
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
SPINETS, virginals, and harpsichords were brought to the American colonies in English ships as early as 1645, when “An old pair of virginalls” appears in an inventory; and another, in 1654. In 1667 a pair of virginals is valued at two pounds. In his diary of 1699 Judge Samuel Sewall alludes to his wife’s virginals. In 1712 the Boston News Letter contained an advertisement that “the spinet would be taught,” and in 1716 the public were requested to “Note, that any Persons may have all Instruments of Music mended, or Virginals or Spinets strung & tun’d, at a Reasonable Rate, and likewise may be taught to play on any of the Instruments above mentioned.” From the wording of this advertisement it is evident that these instruments were no novelty.
I have not been able to learn of an existing virginal which was in use in this country, but occasionally a spinet is found. The expression a “pair” or “set” of virginals was used in the same manner as a “pair” or “set” of steps or stairs, and in England an oblong spinet was called a virginal, in distinction from the spinet of triangular shape, which superseded the rectangular, oblong form in which the earliest spinets were made. Both virginal and spinet had but one string to a key, and the tone of both was produced by a sort of plectrum which picked the string. This plectrum usually consisted of a crow quill, set in an upright piece of wood, called a “jack,” which was fastened to the back of the key. The depressing of the key by the finger caused the quill to rise, and as it passed the string, the vibration produced the musical tone, which is described by Dr. Burney as “A scratch with a sound at the end of it.” The name of the spinet is by some supposed to be derived from these quills,—from spina, a thorn. According to other authorities the name came from a maker of the instrument, named Spinetti. The virginal was so called because young maids were wont to play upon it, among them that perennial young girl, Queen Elizabeth. The most famous makers of spinets in England were Charles Haward or Haywood, Thomas and John Hitchcock, and Stephen Keene. In Pepys’s diary are the following entries:—