Welcome to

Friends of Square Pianos

This is a website for anyone who owns, or would like to own, a square piano, or possibly a spinet. Or a harpsichord, or a clavichord... Or anyone who is just interested, and would like to learn a little more.

Please get in touch with me, David, on friends.sp@btinternet.com with questions, comments, or just to say 'Hello'.  This is a site for everyone, especially those new to the world of Early Keyboard Instruments.  And of course, we very much appreciate the support of those with more experience.

Update  October 13th

Fine Instruments at Gardiner Houlgate

6th December -

Square Piano by Robert Stodart 1778

Compact 'Italian' Harpsichord

by Colin Booth For Sale

Fine Instruments at Gardiner Houlgate

6th December 

The next addition to the line-up for this important sale is the only known surviving square piano by the pioneer Robert Stodart.

Please see the Gardiner Houlgate page for details of this, and the other four instruments so far announced:  

18th century 'Viennese' piano (maker unkown)

1785 Shudi & Broadwood harpsichord

1757 Joseph Harris Spinet

1914 Dolmetsch/Gaveau clavichord.

Ten more to folllow!

Compact 'Italian' Harpsichord

by Colin Booth For Sale

The distinguished harpsichord player, builder, and recording artist Colin Booth is selling one of his favourite harpsichords, a charming and practical single-register 'Italian' instrument in the traditional style.  At just 5' 7" long, it has a better than usual chance of fitting into a family hatchback.  Please see the Sale Page for full details and links to recordings

Birthday Concert for Douglas Hollick

We do hope that as many Friends as possible will join Derek for this celebration of his birthday.  Those unable to come are invited to consider a donation to a very worthy cause, Maggie's Cancer Care.

Details in the file below.

William Stodart c. 1820s Free to Good Home

Please see the Sale Page for details of this handsome piano.   It does need some work, and is therefore offered Free to Good Home.

Tomkison c. 1822 - Sold

Thomas Tomkison may justifiably be called the Royal Maker - it was he who made the special rosewood grand for the Prince Regent (soon to be George IV) for his Brighton Pavilion, to where it has recently been restored, and is now used for concerts.  This elegant square piano

c. 1822 in good working order.  Now sold.  Please see the Sale Page for details.

Morley Clavichord c. 1962 For Sale

These four-octave Morley clavichords are compact and practical.  They are beautifully built, and this example has particularly splendid veneer  that is rosewood, I believe. The interior is in fine condition, but the exterior has had a harder life, and is very faded.  It needs refreshment, and I would recommend home-made furniture restorer (recipe on request).  Please see the Sale Page for details.   

Update - A Broadwood Grand c. 1807 - 1810 in need of Major Restoration

New Home Found

This interestng  instrument was offered free of charge as a restoration/rebuilding challenge.  Please see the Sale Page for pictures and details.  Note: New home found.  We hope that we may look forward to hearing about progress with this ambitious project.

David Law

For many years, David has been our favourite supplier of his beautiful replica brasswork for early keyboard instruments.  But he has been rather quiet lately.  I have just spoken to him - good to hear his voice. But he is not well these days, and he has asked me to offer the following bulletin:  He had a bad fall earlier in the year, which resulted in a complex fracture to his thigh and hip, needing metal implants.  He is out of hospital and back home, but his mobility and general health are seriously impaired. He sometimes spends a short time in his workshop, but he his limited in what he can do.  He has a backlog of promises and enquiries, and additionally has difficulty operating his computer, and so asks for our understanding and patience. If anyone does wish to contact him, the best way is by his mobile phone.

On behalf of all of us, I wished him well, and assured him that he was in all our thoughts.

Plans for Keene & Brackley Spinet -

Now Affordable!

The famous Keene and Brackley spinet is rightly the model for many reproductions, both amateur and professional.  I am happy to announce that by courtesy of the copyright owner of John Barnes' original plan, we are now able to offer copies at an affordable price; they are now available through Friends of Square Pianos for just £20, plus carriage at cost.  Please note that this is the original plan taken from the original instrument in the picture, not the EMS kit version which had two added sharps for GG# and d3#.

Even if you are not going to build an instrument yourself, anyone with an interest in spinets will find this plan fascinating.  

Please see the new page Plans For Sale for details of plans of spinets, harpsichords, and clavichords offered at reasonable prices.

Bespoke Tuning Hammers

Early keyboard Instruments, whether originals or replicas, do require more frequent tuning than modern iron-framed pianos.   The costs of professional tunings mount up, and it can also be a problem finding a tuner who is happy to work with our ancient instruments.  For this and other reasons, most of us do our own tuning.  To offer some help to those thinking of having a go, I have prepared a short PDF guide, available on request.

It is very important to have a properly-fitting tuning hammer, which should bear on a good portion of the two flat faces of the wrestpin (tuning-pin).  If the fit is too sloppy, the corners of the pin and the socket of the tuning hammer will be damaged, and the backlash makes accurate tuning difficult anyway.  If it is too small, it will grip the top of the pin only, with the same result.

Tuning-hammers are available from Lucy Coad or David Law - see 'Suppliers' page of this website.  Alternatively, I am now able to offer a limited number of hand-made hammers tailored to your own pins, either directly or via a template.  Please see the Tuning and Tuning Hammers page for details

I have made a number of very short and lopsided hammers; these have proved popular with owners of Broadwoods and other pianos with the pins at the back, and also with spinet owners.  In both cases the lid makes tuning difficult (unless it can be thrown right back) and these special hammers can help.  They don’t look as elegant as the long-stemmed symmetrical type, but they are quite practical!

The Spinets of the Hitchcock Dynasy - Names, Numbers, and Dates

The second of these two essays builds on the first ('1664 and All That' - see below) and offers a new interpretation of the data concerning the establishment of Thomas Hitchcock as the leading spinet maker.  It explains the somewhat confusing numbering sequences, their relationship to dates of manufacture, and the change on the nameboard from Thomas to John.  As before, the piece is rather long to transfer directly to this page, so please open the PDF below.

1664 and All That 

Some confusion still surrounds the early life and career of Thomas Hitchcock.  When was he active?  Who was ‘Thomas Hitchcock the Elder’?  One of the first histories of keyboard instruments in Britain was written by Edward Rimbault (pub. 1860).  He tells us that “John [!] Hitchcock made these little instruments of a compass of five octaves. Several specimens still exist bearing dates between 1620 and 1640”  It is likely that Rimbault mistook front numbers for dates, and numbers as high as this would indeed have carried the name of John Hitchcock, but it seems surprising that he had apparently never seen Hitchcock spinets carrying numbers which could not possibly have been dates, such as 1460.

Perhaps the most important early historian for keyboard instruments was Alfred Hipkins of Broadwoods.  He compiled the catalogue for the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition, and used this experience for his 1888 book ‘Musical Instruments – Historic, Rare, and Unique’.  It is in this book that Hipkins makes the notorious statement “…Thomas Hitchcock, whose autograph appears in spinets from 1664 and 1703.” 

His famous 1896 book ‘A Description and History of the Pianoforte’ repeats this as “Thomas Hitchcock’s written dates found within instruments made by him cover the long period between 1664 and 1703.”  But he then goes on to note that Hitchcock was the first to number his instruments, so he did realise that the numbers on the nameboards were not dates. 

As so often happens, later authors followed these statements as unchallenged facts, and the misunderstanding is repeated in James (1933) and Russell (1959).  Boalch ‘Makers of the Harpsichord and Clavichord’ (2^nd edition 1974 and presumably 1^st edition 1956) has a variation of the muddle, ascribing ‘1664’ to ‘Thomas the Elder’, and ‘1703’ to ‘Thomas the Younger’.  Even the 3^rd edition (1995) still has the entries, but the editor (Charles Mould) does realise that something is not quite right, and offers the plaintive statement: “…1664 does seem early for a wing spinet in London, and the date may have been misread.  If it were possible to locate this, and the other early Hitchcock instruments, it would be possible to be more precise about the identity and dates of the members of the Hitchcock family in the early years of their workshops.” 

So it was that, having kept a low profile since 1885, the mysterious ‘1664 Hitchcock’ emerged from the shadows.  This is the story of an important little spinet – it is my privilege to be part of the story.

The essay is a bit long to transfer to this page directly, so please open the PDF below.  All comments welcome!

  Some of you may have followed the construction - starting from a pile of wood - of this replica of a remarkable and important instrument.  The spinet is now complete and playing well, and has gone to its new home in the Sigal  Music Museum in South Carolina.   Please see the Spinet Page for the story.

About the 'Webmaster' (David Hackett)

My only claim to respectability is that Carl Dolmetsch once offered to take me on as an apprentice.  This was in 1962, when I had just shown him my first clavichord, and been his guest at Haslemere.  However, he also advised me that it would be better to go to University, and I accepted his advice.  Early Keyboard Instruments have therefore remained a hobby, and now happily retired, I am able to spend a bit more time enjoying them - and encouraging others, I hope..