TMS Project final images\1979-240\1979-240,A.mp3

Grand Piano

Date1806

Artist/Maker John Broadwood & Son

MediumMahogany: case veneer, crossbanding, lid, stand, pedals, hammer butts, action brackets Oak: case substrate, key-frame balance rail; Spruce: soundboard; Softwoods: nameboard, internal framing; Satinwood: nameboard veneer; Sycamore: key fronts; Beech: nut, bridge, jacks; Plain light hardwoods: molded key fronts, pin block veneer; Maple(?): inscription cartouche; Limewood: key levers; Purpleheart(?): keywell banding ; Ebony: sharps; Ivory: natural key tops; Leather: pads on keys for dampers, covering on damper register; Iron: gap spacer arcs, tuning pins, pedal trapwork, setoff pins, back-check wires; Brass: lid hinges, damper rail hooks, lid hooks, lid hook rings; Tinned brass: nut pins, bridge pins, hitch pins, balance pins, front pins

DimensionsNet dimensions exclude lid, stand and projecting moldings. All dimensions in mm except where noted. Length: 2,276 mm (net 2,245 mm); Width: 1,076 mm (net 1,056 mm); Height: 898 mm (net 294 mm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. Rodman Rockefeller

Object number1979-240,A

DescriptionCASE DECORATION: The case is veneered in mahogany with black stained line stringing and mahogany crossbanding.
KEYWELL: A pine nameboard is veneered with satinwood and rosewood crossbanding (all grains run parallel to the substrate). White and black line stringing runs around the boxwood inscription oval.
LID: The lid is a single width of solid mahogany with a drip molding. Three brass oval rings operate internal lid hooks.
STAND AND PEDALS: The trestle stand has square tapered legs and brass casters and caster cups. Three pedals project from separate columns descending from the front stretcher(?) and a fret sawn pedal lyre decorates the space above them between the stretcher and the upper rail of the stand.
INTERNAL NOTES: The folding, adjustable music desk survives intact.
COMPASS: FF–c4
OCTAVES: 5 oct. + 7 notes
STOPS: There are three pedals. The left pedal shifts the keyboard for either una corda or due corde, depending on the position of a hand stop in the right end block. The center pedal lifts the dampers on the bass half (FF–b), and the right pedal lifts the treble dampers(c1–c4).
Label TextFor almost two hundred years, the name "John Broadwood and Sons" was the best-known name in English piano manufacture. Innovative construction methods, a reputation for high quality and good service, and sophisticated marketing techniques brought the firm's pianos to homes throughout the British Isles and even to India and the United States.

By 1806, the date of this instrument's manufacture, the Broadwood firm had built up an extensive network of contracts throughout England and Scotland, and the demand for Broadwood pianos was so great that the firm had difficulty keeping up with its orders. This instrument, built for a Mrs. Mosely, in Norfolk, England, was ordered by George Smart, a renowned composer and conductor of his day. Its decoration, in keeping with early nineteenth-century taste, is refined and elegant. It has three pedals for the varying of tonal color, and it also incorporates an una corda mechanism which shifts the keyboard so that the hammers strike only one or two strings instead of all three.

Inscribed"1806 / John Broadwood & Son / Makers to His Majesty / and the Princesses. / Great Pulteney Street, Golden Square / London." in ink on name board.
Markings• "N3541" in ink on left end of pin block top; also faintly in pencil on back of nameboard, under treble end of pin block, and stamped on top surface of keyboard section of stand
• "41" (end of serial number) in chalk on diagonal frame piece
• "T" in chalk on inside of spine under soundboard
• "J.H.G. Ball" stamped on top of right end of pin block
• "Thorndick" in pencil on cheekpiece under pin block
• "Cochran[e?]" in ink at treble end of hammer/setoff rail
ProvenanceDelivered in 1806 to Mrs. Mosely in Norfolk, England; eventually owned by Rodman Rockefeller of New York, who gave it to CWF in 1979

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