John Harris (17??–1772) was a Bostonian maker of

spinet A spinet is a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument, such as a piano or organ. Harpsichords When the term ''spinet'' is used to designate a harpsichord, typically what is meant is the ''bentside spinet'', described in this s ...

s and

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a ...

English by birth, Harris was the son of Joseph Harris, also a maker of harpsichords and spinets. He is known to have been working in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Red Lion Street Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a second ...

by 1730, the year in which he received a patent for "a new invented harpsichord". The description of the instrument suggests that it has only unison stringing, but that it contained as well some sort of device for octave coupling. He later emigrated to the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th cent ...

, settling in the North End of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

in 1768; a spinet which he constructed the following year is currently in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

Sources

* Morse, Francis Clary. ''Furniture of the Olden Time''. pp. 284–286

Spinet by John Harris in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

External links

* American musical instrument makers Harpsichord makers 1772 deaths Year of birth unknown English musical instrument makers {{US-music-bio-stub