Pascal Taskin

Pascal Joseph Taskin (1723 – 1793) was a French harpsichord and piano maker. Born in Theux, near Liège, he lived most of his life in Paris.

Pascal Taskin worked in the workshop of the Blanchet family in Paris, though little is known of his activity until the death of François Étienne Blanchet II in 1766, when he married his widow and joined the guild as a master instrument-maker, taking over the supervision of the Blanchet workshop.

The continuity between the Blanchet and Taskin traditions is indicated by the note Taskin attached to his new instruments:

pascal taskin, Facteur
de Clavessins & Garde des Instruments
de Musique du Roi, Eleve & Succes-
seur de m. blanchet, demeure
Même Maison, rue de la Verrerie,
vis-à-vis la petite porte de S. Merry,
a. paris

Taskin inherited Blanchet's title of facteur des clavessins du Roi, and became keeper of the King’s instruments when Christophe Chiquelier retired in 1774. He set up a workshop in Versailles with his nephew Pascal Joseph Taskin II (1750–1829) in 1777 in order to carry out the latter role; his other nephews Henry Taskin and Lambert Taskin also worked for him, though little is known of them. Pascal Joseph II went on to work in the Blanchet workshop in 1763 and, like his uncle, married into the family in 1777 with his wedding to François Etienne Blanchet II's daughter. Pascal Taskin was succeeded after his death in 1793 by his former master's son, Armand François Nicolas Blanchet, whom he had brought up himself.

Pascal Taskin built on and refined the already excellent Blanchet harpsichord-making tradition. He is credited with introducing genouillères (knee-levers) with which to control the stop combinations, and a new register of jacks using peau de buffle (soft buff leather) plectra, instead of the usual quill, in 1768.

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