Johannes Daniel Dulcken

Joannes Daniel Dulcken (bapt. 21 April 1706, Wingeshausen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany — 11 April 1757, Antwerp, Belgium) was a Flemish harpsichord maker who originated from a distinguished German family of instrument builders. The son of the village pastor, Johannes moved to Maastricht in the southeastern Netherlands in 1736, where his eldest son was born and baptized. Two years later, Dulcken relocated to Belgium, settling in Antwerp; his family embraced Calvinism and joined the Reformed Church. Circa 1742, J.D. Dulcken was renting a single property in Hopland. His business and finances notably improved in the following years — by 1747, Dulcken already purchased three houses in the same neighborhood. Johannes Daniel made single and double-manual harpsichords based on the Ruckers' design but with an extended range: five-octave compasses and 2×8'/4' registers. He was an esteemed and prolific maker held in high regard by his contemporaries; Charles Burney wrote in 1773 that after the Ruckers family, "the harpsichord-maker of the greatest eminence […] was J. D. Dulcken." Dulcken died in 1757; curiously, he left the family business to Joannes Dulcken (1742—1775), who was only fifteen at the time, and not his eldest son Johan Lodewijk Dulcken (1736—post-1793), who was already an established harpsichord maker in Amsterdam.