SOLD Neupert-Feldberg spinet (small harpsichord) REDUCED

SOLD

montesquieu

Renaissance Wammer
Wammer
Mar 2, 2021
313
396
83
Sandhurst, UK
AKA
Tom
HiFi Trade?
  1. No
After seven years of ownership I’m parting with my lovely Neupert-Feldberg spinet, a 4 1/2 octave small harpsichord (C-f3).

This was made in Sevenoaks, Kent, as part of a joint venture between the venerable Neupert instrument-making company of Bamberg, Germany, based on their ‘Silberman’ design, and the English Feldberg company, responsible for some of the most important instruments in the Early Music revival through the 1960s and 1970s. Neupert still have this model in production, priced around 7,000 Euros for a new one, and are currently selling a 1990 version for 4,900 Euros second hand. The serial number is NF.40, model Silbermann Spinet and it was originally sold in June 1964.

http://www.johnfeldbergworkshop.co.uk/
https://www.sevenoakssociety.co.uk/8-news/307-the-john-feldberg-harpsichord-workshop
https://www.jc-neupert.de/en/instruments/historische-instrumente/gespielte-instrumente-spinette

I purchased from a private owner on the Somerset-Wiltshire border. After I bought it, I took it to Peter Barnes, the harpsichord maker and repairer in near Frome, where it was regulated and generally fettled. I’ve since kept on top of the regulation myself. It is currently in good voice and in tune (A=415, ‘baroque' pitch, and holds tune pretty well for weeks at a stretch, though it generally needs re-tuning after rapid changes in humidity and temperature. It can be straightforwardly tuned by anyone with a tuning app on their phone. It comes with a tuning hammer.

It has a nicely aged spruce soundboard, brass jacks and Delrin plectra, and a lovely polished silver maker’s nameplate. It also boasts a lute stop.There is some fading and light scuffing in a few places on the walnut veneer but nothing a French polisher couldn’t sort pretty easily if required. (I didn’t bother as most of this is completely invisible with the lid opened, which is how I have it pretty much all the time). It’s incredibly compact - just 105cm at the rear, 105cm across the front and 80cm on the short side at the right. Fits easily into a small corner. The four and a half octave compass is essentially the same as an organ keyboard and plays pretty much all Renaissance repertoire from the mid-1500s onwards, right up and through the German baroque including all of Bach.

Offered at £650 £600 collected from Sandhurst, Berkshire. The legs come off and it is transportable in a normal hatchback.

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