The internal painted brace which was totally hidden from view inside the instrument until it was opened in the present restoration.  This was probably painted as a trial before the whole of the soundboard was painted in 1750 when the instrument was widened, by François Étienne Blanchet, Paris.  This painting was not cleaned or re-touched in any way in the present restoration so that it remains as a protected and un-altered example of the decorator's art.

Return to the section on the eighteenth-century history of the Franco-Flemish harpsichord

Return to the section on the description of the Franco-Flemish harpsichord