This is one of twelve known examples of harpsichords with elaborate cases made by the renowned Jacob Kirkman of London. Kirkman was a Swiss Alsatian who immigrated to England in the early 1730s and found employment with the harpsichord maker Hermann Tabel. After Tabel's death in 1738, Kirkman married his widow and took over his master's workshop including the materials and stock of harpsichords. Jacob later formed a partnership with his nephew Abraham, who later would take his own son Joseph into the workshop. The Kirkman firm was one of the most prolific builders of keyboard instruments in England during the eighteenth century thought to have supplied a similar instrument to Queen Charlotte in 1766 (see Sotheby's London, Spetchley - Property from the Berkeley Collection, 11 December 2019, lot 39). In addition to harpsichords, the Kirkmans would also build pianos. The company built its last harpsichord in 1809.

Rudolph Nureyev

This elaborate harpsichord was previously in the collection of Rudolf Nureyev, where it took bride of pace in the bedroom of his apartment in the legendary Dakota building in New York City. One of the most charismatic ballet stars of the 20th century and an artist who was often called the greatest male dancer since Vaslav Nijinsky. Nureyev fundamentally changed public perception of both ballet and the male ballet dancer becoming a worldwide sensation and popularising the art form.

Nureyev was born in Siberia and trained at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute in Leningrad from the age of seventeen, joining Kirov Ballet in 1958. It was during a Kirov tour to Paris in 1961 that he made the bold move and defected to the West, an offence deemed treason and the first political defection by a Soviet artist. After debuts in America he made his London debut dancing with the renowned Margot Fonteyn at a charity gala, followed by his Royal Ballet debut on 21 February 1962 in Giselle again with Fonteyn. While with the Company he danced with the world’s leading ballet companies, on Broadway and on film, and won wide acclaim as a stager (including Don Quixote) and choreographer (including Romeo and Juliet). He was appointed Artistic Director of Paris Opéra in 1983 and was awarded the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur at the premiere of his last work with the company, a staging of La Bayadère, on 8th October 1992.