Restoration Diaries

Contents:

1)  An American Geib Nameboard, by Tom Strange and John Bartlett
2)  J.A. Knam (Wien) Tafelklavier c.1815 by Andrew Nolan
3)  Christopher Ganer  c.1795 by David Hackett (Part 1)
4)  Adam Beyer  c.1780 by Graham Walker
5)  Broadwood c. 1837, by Bernard Novell  (available as PDF on request)
6)  Longman & Broderip (Geib) by Tom Strange (available as a PDF on request)
7)  Clementi c.1815 by David Hackett (available as PDF on request)

To receive these PDFs, please email David friends.sp@btinternet.com

This section is quite long now - but please scroll down, and you'll get there!
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Many thanks to Tom Strange and John Bartlett for this splendid contribution from South Carolina.  This is a truly stunning piece of work, and the narrative contains many useful tips.  But apart from that, it's just fascinating!

(1) Bringing Back an American Square Piano Name Board.

The one singular feature of any square piano that has nothing to do with its sound, but commands our attention, is the name board. Early squares displayed latinized calligraphic masterpieces that gave the maker’s name and frequently, the place of business and even the date of manufacture. As squares evolved, this tradition continued, generally dropping the date by the first decade of the new 19th century as it became obvious that the clients would rather not remind their guests how old the instrument had become! In its place, arrays of flowers, garlands, and other foppery could be found over the whole expanse of the name board, which to the trained eye does as much to date the instrument as an actual number.

In America, this tradition continued, and particularly between 1820 and 1835 the name board was awash with gold and classical motifs of acanthus leaves and fern heads, again giving the makers name and exact address. In 2009, one of the Friends of Square Pianos heeded a call to rescue a square from an unimproved warehouse of a major movie studio. The prop department was clearing house, and everything was to go to a home or the dump. Among the seven squares was a William Geib, from about 1830-32. One of the prominent New York makers in young America, Geib enjoyed a reputation of high quality and elegant design, and this one displayed elements of both, featuring an early string plate but a scaling that more nearly bespoke the high Federal Period piano sound, light, crisp and still distinct through the treble.

All that said, the poor thing stood as a wreck. It had seen water and plenty of it, the keys had been painted white, and it had undergone more than one attempt to do some level of restoration. While none of this is too much of an impediment to the steely-eyed old piano enthusiast, there was one defect that if left uncorrected, would remove much of the charm even after a successful return to playing condition. The name board was a disaster, as seen below.



What had once been a marvelous display was now in shattered pieces. On careful examination with the piano safely in hand, it was obvious that the ENTIRE name board was covered in one continuous varnish transfer decal, with simulated mahogany or rose wood beneath, and the gold insignia in the middle, with gold banding around the perimeter, all on a salmon colored gesso base. One can only imagine the technique needed to successfully transfer a decal of this size without wrinkles or bubbles each and every time to its proper position on the curved name board! Now, water and time had taken their toll. Even the most ardent advocate for ‘original’ would conclude this was a lost cause.

 But the piano was to come back to life, and the name board should follow. So little was left that we could only photographically document the fragments for later use. Measurements could be taken to allow us to know what a full size version would look like and where to place it on the name board. Fortunately, another friend, Edward Swinson, had a sister instrument for sale from a year or so earlier, and the decal was nearly identical.



Edward was kind enough to send us a full frame picture, and while we could have wanted even more resolution, it was enough to complete the project. As you can see, this is a very prominent feature and one that would diminish the instrument if entirely missing.

 

How to proceed? Obtaining such a decal was laughable; piano transfer decals available today are limited to modern or semi modern big run names. Nothing like this has ever been available outside of the original shop. Following our documentation, the discussion started around how to develop the real or faux wood background. Modern wood graining techniques look ludicrous at this close of an inspection. This is highly sophisticated and involved, and unless you examine it microscopically, it presents as a real wood look. While the challenges of developing a similar looking base in oils were discussed (and might have proven successful) it was decided to use thin mahogany veneer that matched the still-existing top trim.

 

The next task was to place some clear sticky tape on the name board and remove all that would come away cleanly with the tape, as reference material. Then the whole face was cleaned in Formby’s finish remover and medium steel wool to get back to basic wood, which was probably ash or similar.

  

The grain was originally intended to run the length of the name board. With water and the elements, the base of the name board is now a complex combination of cupped areas, which was under-appreciated on first glance. An attempt to veneer down a long sheet of mahogany with the grain length-wise left pockets in the corners where the veneer could not be forced to go down, since the long section was already curved in a cupped position, and the corners were hardly flat either. This veneer attempt had to be removed, and a cabinet scraper applied to the base to at least remove some of the cupping. We next decided to veneer with the grain vertical, and this ultimately proved highly successful, as the grain is no longer fighting the steep corners and the center cupping is nearly gone. With the grain filled and a topcoat of Tung oil on, we now at least have a name board that is presentable if somewhat plain.

Now we turn our attention to the central decal. The metallic inks used at the time often contained a small amount of real gold powder, along with brass and sometimes silver. These inks tended to give a more brilliant look than modern paints and lacquers, even the ones that profess to be ‘gold leaf’. Real leafing looks far more similar, though even more brilliant. The advantage of leafing is that rather neat boarders can be obtained if the masking is done correctly. It was decided to leaf the design on.

Now we needed a full size image of the decal. The picture Edward sent us was taken into photo shop, the contrast enhanced, and then the dark outer areas replaced with white to make the tracing easier.

We then used the ‘free transform’ feature to correct for a slight tilt up of the camera when the original was taken (as seen above before correction). We needed a perfectly rectangular box. The design is actually too long for the paper in the inkjet printer, but it is easy to crop it into two sections, print them out on a single piece of paper, and then cut out and rejoin. Now we have a perfect template of the original.

Acetate on hand from an earlier project was laid out over the design and all the features cut out with a hobby knife. This was given a light coat of spray adhesive and then laid on the name board, being careful to space it with wax paper until the placement could be gotten just right, per the original measurements.



A thin acrylic spray was then put on to seal the mask edges to the name board. After drying, the gold size was carefully painted into the unmasked areas. A little creep, if it happens, is not too detrimental, as the mask will absolutely determine where gold will go. 

I used the ‘patent’ gold leaf now available that comes on a paper backing. It is not real gold, and frankly, that would have been preferable as it is more fragile and will leave even better seam edges, but this is serviceable and far easier to handle. The trick with adhesive size is not to rush it. It needs to be hard and still tacky. If you attempt to lay the leaf on too early while the size is still soft, the gold will split and tear and make a mess! Here we have the gold laid in and resting.



 Once it has been carefully rubbed into all the cut out areas, the paper is removed, and the mask gently raised up, breaking the gold leaf and leaving the unwanted residual behind. Fear not, small areas that are not well covered can be retouched with a little free hand size painted in and press the leaf on. It will only remain where size was painted.

Even the most artistically challenged will be able to fill in the hatching detail, and with our photos to guide us, we can draw all this in with dark oils and a fine brush, of after a matt varnish spray, India ink and quill pen. If it doesn’t quite match the original it can look close enough to make a good fit to the instrument. After all, the original was almost certainly done on a metal plate or similar with hard engraving tools (by highly skilled people dedicated to this sort of task) and we are painting on wood.

 
Original                                                          Copy

Now comes the hard part.  The label reads in four lines, all in different fonts: 

 Improved Patent
W. Geib
3rd Avenue & 170 Broadway
New York 

Were we to try to reproduce this freehand, on the still somewhat uneven surface of wood and varnish, we would probably end up with a mess. Time to turn to the computer again.

We can actually make up a water transfer decal using the laser or ink jet compatible papers that are available for such things, and produce a credible label. 

First we make a picture of the center panel and get it to the right size upon printing to exactly fit the gold panel. If we had a very high-resolution photograph we could use Photoshop or similar to turn all the gold areas white, which would print as clear. Lacking that we will need to reproduce the graphics we see.




We need to work through the fonts. From details left behind, we can get a fair idea of what the first line consisted of. A run through the available fonts on-line at fonts.com gave a very close match. As an alternate to buying these expensive fonts for very limited duty, we can use the preview pane, type in our phrase, press the ‘print screen’ button, and take this into Photoshop where it can be cropped and made into the two words as:



This can be sized now to fit the area of the first line. The third line is similar to a font found in Word, but with obvious exceptions. Imported into Photoshop, we can erase bits and craft it into a credible version of the original:

Original lightly modified 

Heavily modified

The 4th line (NEW YORK) is easy, this font is largely still in use and was used as found. But what to do about the name? No font similar to this could be found anywhere. We took the photo, enhanced it in Photoshop to make the lines as bold as possible, and the whole was blown up to about 5 times original size. Vellum paper, (a hard tracing paper), was placed on top and with some care, the name was traced over in ink, including flourishes where visible. The original had many ultra fine tracings and we included as many as we could still see, or the original suggested.


Further refinements in Photoshop, and the whole name assembled over the original, then the original removed.



This can now be printed on the water transfer decal sheet and lifted over the panel. It will not be quite a photographic likeness, but from where we started, we have come a long way. The name board is now a thing of pride and perhaps beauty again.





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(2) J. A. Knam Tafelklavier, Wien c.1815
By Andrew Nolan

[Ed. note: Many thanks to Andrew for this spendid contribution.  Most of the pictures have been reduced in size for the website.  To see more detail, I suggest downloading and viewing separately.  DH.]



  I saw this piano for auction in Pennsylvania where it had been a display piece belonging to Germantown Museum. Therefore it was probably an heirloom of German settlers in Pennsylvania in the early 19th century.
  The piano was shipped to Australia, upside down as the leg blocks were unglued, but may also because it was going 'down under'! It was received in good order and I set to work.
  Joseph Anton Knam appears to have been active in Vienna from 1810 to 1830 and is credited with introducing triple stringing in the treble of square pianos. He seems to have only built square pianos. The current example is a 6 octave instrument with Viennese action and 'box' damping. The case is pine, veneered with vertically laid bookmatched walnut veneer stained to resemble mahogany. The instrument stands on 4 screw-in conical legs with gilt plaster capitals in neoclassical style. 

    

   This instrument is an example of a square piano where the strings run from the left front corner to the right back corner unlike English and French instruments where the converse is true. It is as if a spinet type layout was contained in a rectangular box. This layout has the advantage of having the pinblock over the keyboard, acting as an important strut to the case. 

 

   The hammers are hinged so that they face the player and rise up through the gap behind the pinblock, just as in a grand Viennese fortepiano. The majority of the strings are original and the instrument is largely bichord except for the top octaves which are trichord. The action is positioned and raised up behind the pinblock by a sled which contains ramps. There is a moderator and there was a third stop after the dampers, which after some detective work was judged to be a bassoon stop. The pedal lyra and the levers for the moderator and bassoon were missing.
   The strings are hitched onto a wooden plated at the right side.
   Although the piano was in good condition it suffered from the following problems:
   -loose leg blocks - these were cleaned and reglued.

     



Action

  The action is removed from the instrument by drawing forward CAREFULLY on the blocks at the side of the keyboard.  This causes the sled to pull out from the keyboard, dropping the action.  A risk with Viennese actions is for a hammer which remains partly up to jam on the back of the pinblock and be broken off.  For this reason, the hammers are inspected before drawing out the action.

[Ed. note: VERY wise counsel: also applies to most grands, and the 'extra notes' of English squares.]  

 

 
   The action was delicately and beautifully made but suffered from the usual problems:
   -moth eaten cloths in the action - hammer rests, back cloth, pawl rail cloth.  Existing cloth was carefully matched to available wool baize samples and replacements made in the same fashion as original, for example the pawl rail cloth consisted on several layers sewn onto paper backing which was glued to the back of the over rail.
   -broken pawl hinges - vellum (meant for cricketbat handles) was carefully thinned and the hinge rail prised apart a little, with the help of some hot water and a syringe the broken fragment was able to be removed and the pawl with its new hinge reinstalled
   -damper wire holes on the pinblock had to be rebushed, this proved to be tricky and eventually leather buckskin punchings were used. 
   -beak leather on several hammers had to be replaced with buff leather of the correct consistency

 
Hitchpin Block
   -the hitchpins had split the hitchpin block and hence tuning the instrument to pitch could not occur. In this design this part is under enormous tension hastening its failure. The whole part was carefully copied and the pin holes redrilled after marking the originals ontracing paper. The original hitchpins were reused were possible. I took the liberty of 'improving the design of the hitchpin plate. The original was made from oak with a maple veneer cap laid perpendicularly. I was not able to reuse the cap veneer as it was heavily split and fragmented. A new plate was constructed from a laminate of beech and several layers of rock maple with the grain running at right angles. It was quite difficult to fit this piece and finally reglue it. Under the plate the pine frame had been split by hitchpins and a section was routed out and patch installed.

   

   
   Before working on the hitchpin block the instrument was detensioned and the strings slipped off the hitch pins. As I did not wish to remove the tuning pins I arranged the strings in sets with wires run through the hitch eyes in order and coiled up out of the way but with as little kinking as possible.
   When the work on the hitchpin block was complete the strings were refitted to the hitchpins and tensioned. The yellow tapes glued to the leading edge of the hichpin block and damping the strings had been washed and were reused.
 
Soundboard
   -while the hitchpin plate was out splits in the soundboard were noted, so it was removed and rebuilt using the original ribs. Interestingly the soundboard was made in 2 pieces. In order to dismantle the ribs and remove the bridge safely undiluted ethanol was first used to desiccate the glue joints and these were carefully 'cracked' off using a spatula. The remaining joints were soaked loose and the components marked, their locations marked and then everything was dried. Before reassembly of the ribs the soundboard was dried using a fan heater in a 'tent' to shrink it and impart a crown to the assembly.

 

 

 

 

Note from the slide-off hinge that even in this small Viennese Piano the lid is designed to be able to be removed for in-home concerts.  One can imagine Schubert using such instruments in the houses of his friends.



Dampers
   - the dampers used soft buff leather and with the shrinkage of the case over time the pads no longer contacted the strings. Instead of shortening the damper wires new pads from soft buff leather were fitted.
   - A replacement pedal lyra was constructed using that on another Knam instrument as a pattern. A bassoon stop was reconstructed using existing screw holes and the sticker hole.

 

   After tuning and allowing the case to settle this instrument is playing once more. It is quite capable of playing technically demanding music as demonstrated by a visiting well-known fortepianist playing Beethoven's 'Appassionata' sonata on it  but is suited for a domestic environment as the sound is reflected back to the player. It is essentially a grand Viennese fortepiano in miniature, with a gruff bass, ringing treble and very wide dynamic range. The small hammer heads naturally do not give a 'Romantic' sound but are well suited for the classical Viennese composers. These instruments continued to be made with Viennese action in this configuration into the mid 19th century, with perhaps the necessary refinement of a metal hitchpin plate. They appear on German eBay from time to time.
-Andrew Nolan
Gold Coast, Australia

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(3)  Christopher Ganer, Square Piano c. 1795

by David Hackett

     Three years after I bought this piano, the restoration is now well under way  The job will take some time, so our reader is invited to follow as the work moves forward.
     This particular Ganer has probably never been reported before.  It came to light when the heirs of its former owner, an agricultural worker of Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire, decided to sell it in March 2007.   This gentleman had bought it in 1940 from his next-door neighbour, who in his turn had owned the piano to the extent of memory before that.  The price paid in 1940 was ten shillings. 
     We can be fairly sure that this piano has escaped the attention of ‘restorers’ throughout the twentieth century, but what before then?  Sadly, the soundboard, strings, and wrestpins are not original, but their replacements show every sign of nineteenth century work – and probably from the first part of the century at that.  The replacement strings were iron (not steel) and brass – with no covered strings.  The wrestpins, although too heavy, are mostly undrilled.  Remarkably, a few of the notes were still capable of sounding when the piano was examined – the pitch was about a third flat.
     Christopher Ganer probably made several hundred pianos, of which the remarkable number of eighty or so are known to survive.  Of those survivors, this must be one of the last to be made; it is unusual in having a double action, one of only about three known.  There is no escapement, but there is an intermediate lever.  When the piano is restored, we will know how well this arrangement worked!

     This piano has the usual eighteenth century compass of five octaves.  There is evidence that it had no handstops, but four pedals.  As well as the expected damper lift and buff effects, there was a lid-swell, and another device that was probably a type of ‘una corda’.  This is believed to have operated by means of a comb arrangement (now missing) at the right-hand end of the keyboard, that rose beneath the string-band to damp one string of each pair.  This is not a common device, and I have never encountered one before.
in overall appearance, the piano is conventional, and at 5’ 3” long, of average size for its time. 
     It rests on a French stand, with leather castors.  There is an unpainted ‘dust cover’, and slight evidence of the usual ledge on the keyboard lid for resting music.  The ledge itself must have been lightly pinned, and missing for some time, as there is no colour-mark on the wood.  There is a folding internal music rest on the back if the nameboard, but it is not certain whether this is original.
     The piano is constructed basically from the usual solid mahogany, but the veneering scheme is remarkable, and woods so far identified (in addition to the usual ebony/box stringing) include tulipwood, satinwood, purpleheart, and partridgewood.

     The nameboard is veneered in satinwood, with a ‘ripple figure’, and edged with tulipwood cross-banding.  The maker’s name is carried on an enamel plaque, and there are surrounding ornaments of inlaid ribbons and sprays.  The main spray is in a green-dyed veneer, with incised and black-filled detail; the ribbon is in a light-coloured veneer with green detail.   

 

     The whole thing was very dirty as found, and the stand in particular is not in good condition.  The farm-cottage rats evidently used the legs to sharpen their teeth!  There is a great deal of work to do before this piano will be restored.  But when it is, the contrast between the vivid purpleheart and the golden satinwood will be eye-catching.  As considerable parts of the veneer on the stand will have to be new, the dilemma is whether artificially to fade the new bits, or to leave them as a reminder of just how brilliant the colours were originally .

----- Part 2 -----

May 2010

  Some time has now passed, and there has been some gentle progress.  The first job was to repair the stand, and to set the piano back on it.


    As can be seen from this picture, some fairly major surgery was required to repair the rat-damage.  The bottom 6" of this leg had been eaten completely, requiring a new piece to be grafted on.

  Here's another unrestored leg, and a repaired one.  As hinted earlier, I have decided (for now, anyway) to leave the purpleheart in its true colour.  After a time (less that 200 years) it matures to a chocolate-brown colour, but this is how it looked when new.  And after all, when we put new stones into a mediaeval cathedral, we don't make them dirty and distressed, do we?  My only problem is that I was unable to obtain satinwood with the glorious honey-colour and figure of the original.  This is real (East Indian) satinwood, but attempts to make it match have been only partly successful.

  The casters, with authentic leather wheels, have been supplied by Optimum Brasses.  The paterae for the corners are from the same firm, cast from originals, and this design has been seen on at least one other Ganer, as well as pianos by Rolfe and Clementi.

Here's the piano back on its stand:

Work has now commenced on the inside!

  We knew that the soundboard was not original, but it appeared that the replacement as found had been fitted in the early nineteenth century.  This conclusion was mainly reached from the fact that the tuning pins, although too thick to be original, were mostly 1820-style undrilled.  However, when the soundboard was removed, it appeared from the wrestplank that there had been another replacement before that, as there were two sets of plugged holes.  The barring structure of the soundboard was very curious (see below) and examination of the various recesses inside the piano gave no clear picture of what the original was.

 The design chosen for the new soundboard is the fairly common 'ladder' pattern of barring, as used around the 1790 - 1810 period for English pianos.  Note that the short ribs are relieved underneath the bridge; this is easiest to see in the one towards the top right of the picture.  This has been seen on at least one other Ganer piano.

There is some apparent colour difference between the boards, but they are all from the same log.  It's just that some have had more exposure to light than others during the 20 years or so that I have had them.  It's the top surface that's finished, though, and that will match (see below).

    The wrestplank has a new top piece, and the soundboard has been glued snugly back into place.

 A duplicate top piece for the wrestplank was made, marked out for the positions of the pins, and drilled on a drill-press.  This ensures that the holes are vertical, and makes a good guide for drilling the actual holes in the right place, accurately, and straight.  The soundboard has been finished with a shellac spirit varnish, which has darkened it to an agreeable honey-colour.  

  Work has now started on the action!

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(4)  Adam Beyer, Square Piano 1778 (No.382)(Part 1)

Contributed by Graham Walker


 

  This instrument is a remarkable survival from the 18th century.  The 1778 Beyer No.382 was originally purchased for a large country house and probably remained there until the house and estate were sold at auction in 1977.  At this time it was retained by the family from whom it was recently acquired.  

  The piano has suffered a slight structural movement internally that was not repaired when the instrument was restored about 30 years ago.  This movement has caused the soundboard to split from the point it passes the edge at the right hand back corner of the key-well to the bridge. 

  Internally the 1778 Beyer is almost as crisp and clean as the day it was made and the name-board inscription is very clear without any loss of detail.  The ivories show a triple score line in addition to the line between the head and tail ivory as expected.  The internal cover has survived, as it has also with the Bate Collection example*, and this may have helped to preserve the original condition of both instruments.  

  Adam Beyer was probably the first maker to fit internal covers (or dust cover) and this was probably used to conceal the workings of the piano in an age in which it may have appeared impolite to show these parts of the instrument. There were two options for the cover. Both options adopted a full length board inside the piano covering the strings and tuning pins except for a small area to the front of the soundboard.  One option adopted a second cover that covered the dampers and also acted as a damper restraint rail and the second option retained the normal damper restraint rail leaving the dampers uncovered.  The Bate Collection Beyer adheres to the first option and the 1778 Beyer to the second.

  Full observation and documentation of the present state of the 1778 Beyer has been made and a proposal for the work to be done to this instrument has been prepared. The objective is to return the instrument to good playing condition but all replacement materials will be strictly to the original 18th century pattern and as close to original composition as possible. 

  The work undertaken to this instrument about 30 years ago, although done with reasonable consideration for the historical merit of the piano, will be re-done to current standards using materials that were unavailable at that time. 

  Some restoration has been done now in which the strings have been removed, the soundboard has been taken out and a structural repair undertaken. The soundboard has been repaired, returning it to a flat state. The tuning pins used when the piano was restored previously were larger than the original set and therefore the top oak layer section of the wrest plank has been replaced and the lower section plugged to accommodate the original style and size of tuning pin.   An original set of satisfactory tuning pins has been found for this instrument. The soundboard has been re-fitted back into the instrument.  

  The action will require very little work. The hammer-head coverings, hammer hinges and hammer rail cloth are all original and in excellent condition. From the impression that the strings have made on the hammer-head leather, it is clear that the instrument has received little use. Some of the keyboard cloths were replaced when the piano was previously restored and these cloths will be replaced with specially prepared green cloth that is as close to the original as possible.  The balance rail will be fitted with a single length of cloth as original pattern and not modern punchings that are so often used for restoring these instruments.  In the former restoration, cloth material was used from damping and this will be replaced with oil-tanned leather pads, as originally fitted. The top seven dampers are missing and replacements will be made exactly to pattern using old mahogany of matching colour.

  The first eleven notes use open-spun wound strings and this is clearly evident from the impressions left on the bridge, nut, and buff stop rail.  The Bate Collection Beyer has wound strings on the first thirteen notes but this instrument includes FF#  in the bass section whereas the 1778  Beyer excludes FF#.  However, I have seen another Beyer of 1782 that only has eleven notes with wound strings.

  I have noticed that many internal parts of the 1778 Beyer are marked with the maker’s number “382” or “82” in pencil and it would appear that this has been written by the same hand.  This may suggest that there was not a division of labour in the Adam Beyer’s workshop for the various parts of the instrument but each craftsman may have worked on many parts or a complete instrument.  In addition to the number 382, the 1778 Beyer is also marked with symbol or monogram that may be “AM 11” on the bottom boards under the key-frame. (see image)  I have seen another Beyer of 1782, similarly marked with this symbol or monogram “AM 178”.  This may be the mark of the workshop foreman.

  A further part of this restoration report will be prepared and updated to this website after the completion of the restoration.  I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has other experiences of restoring an Adam Beyer square piano or who can add to our knowledge of him as a maker of square pianos.  A significant contribution to our knowledge of Adam Beyer has been published by Michael Cole* but there is still much that we do not know. 

  I hope that you have found this report of interest.

  Graham Walker, Dorchester, Dorset.                         Email: squarepianos@balfron.net

*ref website Michael Cole's website www.squarepianos.com - DH


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Previous Restoration Reports:

Tom Strange's 1785 Longman & Broderip/Geib

 David's Clementi (c.1815) 

Broadwood c. 1837, By Bernard Novell

- are available on request as  PDFs by email

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