single manual, C/E-c3 | 8’ The exterior has been painted with arabesques and the coat of arms of the Rockox family and margraveship of Antwerp. The lid interior has been decorated with a landscape (View of Antwerp from the Left Bank). The interior and exterior may have been painted in the 19th century (certainly after 1723). An older layer of paintwork is visible beneath the current decoration. The printed paper is 20th-century. The instrument has been signed on the jack rail: ‘IOANNES COVCHET ANTVERPIAE’. The soundboard has been painted with flowers and arabesques. Rose with the initials ‘I C’ (Joannes Couchet). During restoration work, strips of parchment were found on the underside of the soundboard, and included on these was handwritten text granting Hieronymus Verdussen permission to publish Henricus Adriani’s Catholike sermoonen (1591, with reprints until 1644). The instrument is the latest surviving virginal made by the Ruckers-Couchet family. The instrument has undergone few modifications. It was restored in 1969–70 (Hubert Bédard). Cornelis Bom implemented minor conservation measures in 1978–9. In 1987 the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) researched and restored the lid.
Provenance: For many years it was believed that this instrument had belonged in the collection held by Abel Benjamin Régibo (Ronse) and that it had been auctioned in 1897. Research by Jeannine Lambrechts-Douillez raised questions about this. In 1967, J. Delvaux sold the virginal to the Museum Vleeshuis
