Il cembalaro del re alla sbarra. Pascal Taskin e i falsi Ruckers

Abstract

Falsification of modernized versions of Ruckers and Couchet harpsichords was a common phenomenon in Europe during the 18th century. Between 1774 and 1788 five forged specimens of this kind, still extant and preserved in Brussels, Lisbon, Edinburgh, Hamburg, and Milan, were undoubtedly present in the workshop of Pascal Taskin, who was the most famous Parisian keyboard instruments maker of the century, as well as the provider for the French royal family.
At present his liability for fraudulent actions cannot be demonstrated certainly. Yet different clues lead us to suspect Taskin of both taking advantage of somebody else’s swindles and of being guilty of other deceptions directly. It is important to remind that Ruckers and Couchet instruments put in order by Taskin were «very precious» artefacts, as the Encyclopédie méthodique stated in 1785, similarly to those rearranged by François Blanchet, considered as very valuable objects a few decades before. Significantly another fake Ruckers harpsichord, now at Yale University, was present at the very Blanchet workshop in 1756, an economic motive and an awkward precedent that allow to cast a darker shadow over the well-known facteur de clavecins et garde des instruments de musique du roi.