Fret-free Clavichord after Philip Jacob Specken 1743


After his apprenticeship with Gottfried Silbermann in Saxony, Specken came to Stockholm, where he soon became curator of musical instruments at the Royal Court. His work is exemplary, and we have here, as it were, the preliminary stage of the dynamic, rich and fully resonant type that was to serve as the ideal means of expression for Bach's sons in the second half of the 18th century with an enlarged range.