JOSEPH VAN DER LIST (1738 – 1812)

We still know little about this Flemish or Dutch luthier based in Paris.

Archival research tells us that he was a maker of musical instruments in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine at the time of his marriage in Paris on February 20, 1775 to the daughter of a tailor. Living rue des Vieux Augustins he is registered as a luthier when he remarried on October 30, 1786 with Marie-Gabrielle Corroie; unless it was October 15, 1802 (?) as noted on her death certificate, November 13, 1812, aged 74 and domiciled rue Montmartre.   (Archives Nationales/Minutier Central/ET/XXVIII/448/)

Joseph Van der List is particularly known as a harp maker.

The “HARPEKENNE”, which can be translated as “little harp” combines three types of making: The lute, by the sound box, the guitar by the fretted neck and the harp, by the strings stretched above the soundboard.

Designed to be able to accompany romances and salon music, the harpekènne was played in a way quite similar to that used for the arch-cisters and arch-guitars of the time, whose repertoire was the same.

No other model of this type is known