Albert Delin

Albert Delin (17 April 1712, Ath – 26 Nov 1771, Tournai; also known as Albertus Delin) was a Flemish harpsichord maker.
Biography.
Born in Ath in Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium), he soon moved to the nearby town of Tournai to practice his trade. Little is known of his training but a remarkable number of his instruments have survived. His building style is quite contrary to his more famous contemporaries, like his neighbours Dulckens in Antwerp, the Hass family in Hamburg or the Taskins of Paris, that at the time created complex machines with an extensive variety of registers and knee levers. Delin's surviving instruments are simple, reminiscent of the old Ruckers instruments of a century before and of good workmanship as witnessed by the number of surviving instruments.
Decor of the instruments.
Delin's original case decor seems to have been simple, but some of his instruments later received "makeovers". Most notably his 1760 clavicytherium, was retrofitted with an extravagant gilded, rococo door. The 1738 spinet is elaborately painted with a forest scene on the inside of the lid, while the case is covered with a menagerie of monkeys playing musical instruments.
The soundboard paintings in Delin's instruments are typical Flemish floral motifs, with visible outlines, flat coloring and little detail, a style similar to the Ruckers.
Bibliography.
J. Tournay, "À propos d’Albertus Delin (1712-1771). Petite contribution à l'histoire du clavecin", in "La facture de clavecin du XVe au XVIIIe siècle", Louvain-la-Neuve, 1976, pp. 139–232.
J. Tournay, "The Double Orientation in Harpsichord Building in the Low Countries in the Eighteenth Century", in "The Harpsichord and its Repertoire", Utrecht, 1990, pp. 21–45.