De Quoco Single Manual Harpsichord: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This harpsichord was made by Nicolaus De Quoco in Florence, Italy in 1694. It is a single manual harpsichord with a compass of C - c3 (no C#), and a disposition of 2 x 8’, 1 x 4’, with ornate iron hand stops. The harpsichord has a spruce soundboard, a carved cartouche on nameboard and keywell end blocks, and boxwood-covered naturals and ebony-covered accidentals with boxwood inlay. The the wrestplank is inscribed:

The separable outer case is painted dark green with scroll designs and birds in orange and yellow colors on top. The interior of the cover is painted with a scene probably representing Caesar crossing the Rubicon.

Typical Italian harpsichords were of much lighter construction than those made in northern Europe - the sides of the case were only about an eighth of an inch thick. These fragile instruments were usually placed in heavier, often elaborately decorated, outer cases from which the harpsichord could be removed.

Little is known of Nicolaus De Quoco except that he lived and worked in Florence. According to Italian harpsichord specialist, Dr. Denzil Wraight, this may be the only authentic instrument by De Quoco.

Restored to playing condition 1961-1965, by William Post Ross from the shop of Frank Hubbard, this De Quoco harpsichord is currently used in concerts and featured on recordings by the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society.

Recordings currently available can be found at the following link:

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1694
• maker: De Quoco, Nicolas
• Object Name: harpsichord
• Physical Description: metal (overall material)
• Physical Description: wood (overall material)
• Physical Description: paint (overall material)
• Measurements: overall: 39 1/2 in x 34 1/2 in x 86 in; 100.33 cm x 87.63 cm x 218.44 cm
• ID Number: MI.095234
• accession number: 26256
• catalog number: 95234
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation.