(The wrestler was the tuner, who wrested or strained the wire to the required tension.)
SPINET
This spinet was made in London about the end of the seventeenth century by Stephen Keene.
A contemporary advertisement runs thus:—“Mr. Stephen Keene, Maker of Harpsycons and virginals dwelleth now in Threadneedle St., at the sign of the virginal who maketh them excellently well both for sound and substance.”
THE FLAGEOLET
Pepys, in his Diary (March 1, 1666), writes:—
Being returned home I find Greeting, the flageolet-master, come and teaching my wife.” And (20th Jan. 1667)
“To Drumbleby’s the pipe maker, there to advise about the making of a flageolet to go low and soft, and he do show me a way which he do, and also a fashion of having two pipes of the same note fastened together, so I can play on one and then echo it upon the other, which is mighty pretty.”
A FINE OLD ITALIAN LUTE
A fine old Italian lute with label “1600, in Padova Venue.” A special interest attaches to it from its having been the favourite instrument of the late Carl Engel. In Evelyn’s (the Diarist) time lutes by famous Bologna makers were fetching extraordinary prices.