Copy of a Ruckers 'spinett' virginal
Made in Edinburgh by Grant
O’Brien in 1981
Details about
the decoration of this copy
The decoration of this
instrument is based the surviving features of the traditional decoration of
many Ruckers instruments. The outside
of the case and lid are marbled to imitate a green porphyry marble which was a
very popular architectural building material used in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries throughout Europe.
The inside surfaces of the case and lid are decorated with hand-printed
block papers made from blocks cut and printed by Grant O’Brien. The inside of the lid uses a block-printed
pattern which is meant to imitate green watered silk, although the same pattern
was also printed in brown ochre to simulate figured ash. The natural keyplates are made of bone and
the sharps of bog oak, both of these being the traditional materials used in
the original Ruckers instruments. In
many places - on the lid, jackrail, the upper case mouldings and the front
keywell moulding for example - the underlying poplar wood is left visible and
is covered only in a layer of varnish.
All of the decoration including the preparation of the block-printed papers, the soundboard painting, and the case marbling was carried out by Grant O’Brien.
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