DOUBTFUL AND NON-LATIN-AMERICAN CLAVICHORDS

A.1X. ARGENTINA: Mar de Plata, Estancia La Calandria
Source of information: http://www.contenido.com/turistico/recreacion/estancias.html (now deleted).
Website stated: ‘En el interior de la casa, se puede disfrutar de un petit museo de valiosos objetos de artesanía criolla […] tantos elementos de oro, plata cuero, soga, cristal y porcelana se exhiben en varias vitrinas. Sin embargo, las piezas más attractivas son un fantástico piano de cola y un clavicordio del siglo pasado que pertenecieron al francés Roberano’. (Inside the house, it is possible to enjoy a small museum of valuable objects of Creole workmanship […] many elements of gold, silver leather, cord, crystal and china are displayed in several glass cases. Nevertheless, the most attractive pieces are a fantastic grand piano and a clavichord of the last century which belonged to the Frenchman Roberano [former owner of the Estancia]).
Leopoldo Pérez Robledo reports that the instrument in question is a square piano.

A.2X. ARGENTINA: La Plata, Museo de Instrumentos Musicales Dr E. Azzarini
Source of information: Yolanda Velo, personal communication with photos.
B–b² without b^b² : 36 notes. Apparently fretted as there are about 22 courses.
Projecting keyboard, dark naturals and sharps capped with ivory or bone slips. Unusual keylever cranking with open diamond between e¹/f¹.
No. of bridges: 1, straight, angled.
Separate outer case with painted decoration.
This is not a serious musical instrument. It undoubtedly had its origin in the workshops of the notorious Florentine faker, Leopoldo Franciolini, c. 1900. There is a similar clavichord in the Museu da Música, Lisbon, Portugal.

D.1X. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Santo Domingo, Alcázar de Diego Colón
Sources of information: http://www.elcaribe.com.do/caribe_digital/a-z/espanol/m.htm (now deleted); Nerva Fondeur (Director, Centro de Inventario de Bienes Culturales, Dominican Republic), personal communication.
The website stated: ‘un clavicordio del siglo XV’; however, no such instrument exists, either in the Alcázar or any other museum in the Dominican Republic.

E.3X. ECUADOR: Quito, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana
Sources of information: Jürgen Samtleben: ‘Ein Clavichord in Quito’ in Deutsche Clavichord Societät Rundbrief 41 (January 2004) and personal communication.
Anon., believed to be 18C. A colleague of Jürgen Samtleben was told of the existence of this instrument and E.4X on a visit to Quito in 2003, and this was confirmed by the curator; however, the instrument was not seen. Enquiries continue; for the time being, the possibility that it could be a square piano cannot be excluded. It is also possible that one of these two clavichords is, in fact, E.2.

E.4X. ECUADOR: Quito, Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana
Sources of information: as E.3X.
Anon., believed to be 18C. See E.3X for comments.

Note: There are modern European-made clavichords in the Perdomo Escobar Collection, Bogotá, Colombia, and in the Museo del Teclado, Caracas, Venezuela.