“April 4, 1668. Called upon one Haward that makes virginalls, and there did like of a little espinette and will have him finish it for me; for I had a mind to a small harpsichon, but this takes up less room.”
“July 15, 1668. At noon is brought home the espinette I bought the other day of Haward; cost me 5£.”
Illustration [281] shows a spinet in the Deerfield Museum, which formerly belonged to Miss Sukey Barker of Hingham, who must have been a much envied damsel. It is marked Stephanus Keene, which places the date of its make about 1690. The body of the spinet stands twenty-four inches from the floor. Its extreme length is fifty-six inches, and the keyboard of four and one-half octaves measures twenty-nine inches. There are but six keys left, but they are enough to show that the naturals were black and the sharps white. There is a row of fine inlaying above the keyboard, and the maker’s name is surrounded with painted flowers.
Illus. 281.—Stephen Keene Spinet, about 1690.
The spinet, as may be seen, was a tiny instrument, in shape similar to our modern grand piano. The body of the spinet was entirely separate from the stand, which was made with stretchers between the legs, of which there were three and sometimes four, so placed that one leg came under the narrow back end of the spinet, one under the right end of the front, and one or sometimes two at the left of the front. The instrument rested upon this table or trestle.
The name upon the majority of spinets found in this country is that of Thomas Hitchcock. His spinets are numbered and occasionally dated. There is a Thomas Hitchcock spinet owned by the Concord Antiquarian Society, numbered 1455, and one owned in Worcester, numbered 1519.
Illustration [282] shows a spinet which was owned by Elizabeth Hunt Wendell of Boston. It was probably an old instrument when she took it with her from Boston to Portland in 1766 upon her marriage to the Rev. Thomas Smith, known as Parson Smith of Portland. It is now owned by her great-great-grandaughter in Gorham, Maine. The board above the keys has two lines of inlaying around it, and is marked “Thomas Hitchcock Londoni fecit, 1390.” The front of the white keys is cut with curved lines, and the black keys have a line of white ivory down the centre. The parrot-back chair in the illustration is described upon page 168. Authorities seem to vary upon dates when the Hitchcocks made spinets. Mr. A. J. Hipkins of London, the well-known authority upon pianos, harpsichords, and spinets, writes me that he dates the Thomas Hitchcock spinets from 1664 to 1703, and those of John Hitchcock, the son of Thomas, from 1676 to about 1715. Mr. Hipkins says that the highest number he has met with upon Thomas Hitchcock’s spinets is 1547, so it is safe to date this spinet in Illustration [282], which numbers 1390, to about 1690.
