Blanchet (harpsichord maker)
Members of the Blanchet family were French harpsichord makers from the late 17th century to the mid-19th century. Then they devoted themselves to making pianos .
Nicolas Blanchet (1660–1731) was born in Reims and lived in Paris from 1686 until his death . He obtained the master's title as instrument maker in 1689. There was an instrument maker of the same name in Paris who worked in the early 17th century, but it is not known whether there was a family relationship here.
François-Étienne Blanchet (1695–1761) was the second son of Nicolas Blanchet and followed his father into the craft of building cemalo. He became his father's equal partner in 1722. He lived in Paris, as did his descendants. In 1727 he married Elisabeth Gobin and they had two children. One of their harpsichords belonged to François Couperin . The family's instruments were of high quality, and the prices were accordingly when they were for sale. Many high-quality harpsichords from other manufacturers have been revised by members of the family, especially those from Flemish tradition and mainly instruments from the Ruckers family . A completely new mechanism with a smaller key division was built in and new strings were put up in order to meet the requirements of the French harpsichord literature for a larger pitch range.
Elisabeth-Antoinette Blanchet (1729-1815) was the eldest daughter of François-Étienne Blanchet. She married Armand-Louis Couperin in 1752 .
François-Étienne Blanchet (1730–1766) not only had his father's first and last names, but also became a harpsichord maker like him. Pascal-Joseph Taskin was initially his apprentice and continued his work after his death.
The Blanchet family had worked for the French court since the 1740s and were appointed facteur des clavessins du Roi (builders of the royal harpsichords) in the 1750s . They built harpsichords until the 1790s, but by that time they also built gavel pianos . Claude Balbastre owned one of the instruments .
Armand-François-Nicolas Blanchet (1763-1818) was the son of François-Étienne Blanchet (1730-1766) and was trained by Pascal-Joseph Taskin after the death of his father. He left a textbook with the title Méthode abrégée pour accorder le clavecin et le piano (Paris, 1797–1800).
Nicolas Blanchet , son of Armand-François-Nicolas Blanchet, took over the company's business in 1818. Johannes Roller , a German piano manufacturer , became a partner of the company until he retired in 1851. They built their first piano in 1827. PAC Blanchet entered the family business in 1855.
literature
- William Dowd : The Surviving Instruments of the Blanchet Workshop ; The Historical Harpsichord: a Monograph Series in Honor of Frank Hubbard i, ed.Howard Schott (Stuyvesant, NY, 1984)
- William Dowd / John Koster: Blanchet. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).