Harpsichord after Neapolitan models of the 16th century
Naples was for the south what Venice was for the north: an important, impulse-giving centre of harpsichord building. The cases of the harpsichords of this period are typically made of maple, the tail sits at a very acute angle to the spine, the case walls cantilever downwards over the underside so that the instruments stand in their separate outer cases only on the case walls, the decorative cheeks to the right and left of the keyboard are carved, the keyboard runs in a rebate and can be pulled out forwards like a drawer.