Christian Zell (c. 1683 – 13 April 1763) was a German harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

 maker.

He was probably a pupil of harpsichord maker Michael Mietke

Michael Mietke

Michael Mietke I was a German harpsichord and harp maker, whose sons also became instrument makers.He apparently lived his entire life in Berlin and is known to have been an instrument maker there from, at the latest, 1695. He succeeded Christoph Werner in 1707 as official maker to the court...

. The first mention of him is in 1722 in the register of citizens of Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

, the city where he was to spend the rest of his life. In that year, he took over the workshop of instrument maker Carl Conrad Fleischer after marrying his widow; they had three children.

There are three of his harpsichords surviving: a 1728 instrument in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.-History:...

; a 1737 instrument in the Museu de la música, Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

; and a 1741 instrument in the Museum of the Organeum in Weener

Weener

Weener is a town in the district of Leer, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated near the border with the Netherlands, on the river Ems, approx. 10 km southwest of Leer, and 25 km southeast of Emden...

, Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

. They are noted for the richness of their decoration, with lacquer

Lacquer

In a general sense, lacquer is a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as required...

ed chinoiserie

Chinoiserie

Chinoiserie, a French term, signifying "Chinese-esque", and pronounced ) refers to a recurring theme in European artistic styles since the seventeenth century, which reflect Chinese artistic influences...

 typical of Hamburg harpsichords, and most significantly, their 'matchless tone'.

The harpsichord played by American singer-songwriter Tori Amos

Tori Amos

Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

 on her 1996 album Boys For Pele

Boys for Pele

Boys for Pele is the third studio album by American singer and song-writer Tori Amos. Preceded by the first single, "Caught a Lite Sneeze", by three weeks, the album was released on 22 January 1996, in the United Kingdom and on 23 January, in the United States...

 and the subsequent Dew Drop Inn Tour is a replica

Replica

A replica is a copy closely resembling the original concerning its shape and appearance. An inverted replica complements the original by filling its gaps. It can be a copy used for historical purposes, such as being placed in a museum. Sometimes the original never existed. For example, Difference...

 of the 1728 Christian Zell harpsichord although without the elaborate paintings. It was made by Robert Goble & Son

Robert Goble

Robert Goble was an English harpsichord builder.The son of Harriet and John Goble, a wheelwright, he grew up in Thursley, Surrey. He first encountered pioneering early-instrument-maker Arnold Dolmetsch and his family in the autumn of 1917, when they took refuge from London air raids by renting a...

.