Henri Hemsch
Jean-Henri Hemsch, known in German as Johann Heinrich Hemsch, was a French harpsichord maker of German origin.
Biography
Hemsch was born in Kastenholtz, near Cologne, and moved to France in 1728 where he completed a six-year apprenticeship under Antoine Vater, another German émigré harpsichord maker. Following this, he established his own workshop in Rue Quincampoix, Paris with his younger brother Guillaume, and served a two-year term as juré of the instrument makers' guild from 1746.Hemsch died in Paris and was succeeded by his nephew Jean-Henri Moers. He is celebrated as one of the most important harpsichord builders of his milieu.
Six of his double-manual harpsichords have survived:
· a lavishly decorated instrument in brown and gold from 1736
· a white instrument with a lid painting and gilding from 1751
· a black and red instrument with gold bands from 1754
· a green and red instrument with subtle gilding from 1755/6
· a black and red instrument with a blank lid from 1761
· a lavishly decorated ravalement double-manual harpsichord from 1763 based on a 1636 Andrea Ruckers harpsichord
His harpsichords are similar to those of Vater and French in style, with two manuals, three-register disposition with shove coupler, and a compass of
Guillaume Hemsch
Three further instruments bearing the Hemsch name have survived, all of which were completed by Guillaume:· a double-manual harpsichord from 1763
· a fake "1636" Ruckers from 1766, the soundboard of which was probably built from a seventeenth-century Flemish muselaar
· an undated fake "1628" Ruckers