Harpsichord by Sodi, V

As made by Vincenzio Sodi in 1789, the instrument was originally a piano with compass FF to g3 (63 notes); the missing action would have been of the German (Viennese) type. Shortly before its acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1900, it was fraudulently and crudely altered, almost certainly by the firm of Leopoldo Franciolini in Florence, into an elaborately decorated three-manual harpsichord with compass FF to f3 (61 notes). With no provision to change the stops, the disposition was:
4' >dogleg, upper and middle manuals
8' >dogleg, middle and lower manuals
< 8' lower manual.

Of Sodi’s work the principal remains are:
The entire case (with walnut walls, presumably originally varnished)
The interior structure
The wrest plank
The soundboard
Probably the lid (also of walnut)
Possibly most of the wrest pins (which, if not by Sodi, might well have been taken from old Italian harpsichords)

From Franciolini are:
All of the action parts: jacks, jack guide, and keyboards (possibly incorporating some older material, e.g., for the bone coverings of the lower-manual naturals; the middle- and upper-manual naturals are covered in ivory)
The wrest-plank veneer
The nuts and bridges (which were so badly glued as to be almost entirely loose)
The nameboard and jackrail
The decorative painting
The stand