Henri Hemsch, original name Johann Heinrich Hemsch (variants Jean-Henri Hemsch, Johannes Heinrich Hembsch) (21 February 1700 - September 1769), was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 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 of German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 origin.

He was born in Kastenholtz, near Cologne

Cologne

Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...

, and moved to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1728 where he served a six-year apprenticeship in the shop of Antoine Vater (fl. Paris, 1715–1759), another German émigré. Following this, he set up independently with his younger brother Guillaume (Wilhelm) (b.5 December 1709; fl.1748–1774). He served as juré of the instrument makers' guild in 1746. He is considered one of the most important Parisian makers of his time. He was succeeded in his craft by his nephew

Nephew

Nephew is a son of one's sibling or sibling-in-law, and niece is a daughter of one's sibling or a sibling-in-law. Sons and daughters of siblings-in-law are also informally referred to as nephews and nieces respectively, even though there is no blood relation...

 Jean-Henri Moers (b.Kastenholtz, August 1734; fl.1754–1793).

Five of his double manual harpsichords survive today. The earliest, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

, is dated 1736. His instruments are similar to those of Vater and French in style, with two manuals, three-register disposition with shove coupler and a compass of FF–e (rising to f in a 1761 instrument at the Musée de la Musique, Paris). His remaining instruments are similar in number and quality to those of the Blanchet

Blanchet

-Persons:*Abbé François Blanchet , French littérateur*Augustin-Magloire Blanchet , first Bishop of Walla Walla and Nesqually ; brother of François Norbert*Claude Blanchet , Canadian financial tycoon...

/Taskin

Taskin

Taskin may refer to:* Taşkın Aksoy , German-Turkish football manager and former player* Pascal Joseph Taskin , Belgian-French harpsichord and piano maker...

family.
He made the famous Harpsichord that is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.