Gardiner Houlgate March 14th
Please remember that, as with 'Pianos for Sale', I have not usually seen these instruments, and any comments I make may be based entirely on information supplied by the auctioneers, or what we can see from the pictures.
Three remarkable instruments new to this sale!
- An Original Clavichord c. 1680 - 1730
- A 3¼-octave Broadwood Square Piano 1796
See Below for the History of this Piano
- A 1791 Beck & Corrie with an unusual action
Also making return appearances from the December Sale - the Shudi & Broadwood 2-manual harpsichord, and the Knam (Vienna) square piano.
Results! - see below
An Orignal Clavichord c. 1680 - 1730
This clavichord is probably South German; as so often with instruments like this, the maker not known. The case is of walnut - length 3' 5".
The compass is C/E - c3, short octave. It is triple-fretted - 22 courses, 45 notes.
The keys are of a light-coloured wood, not boxwood. The sharps are stained.
The key-fronts show an embossed paper decoration - and a beetle flight-hole! But there are no signs of active woodworm.
This instrument was repaired and put into working order by Peter Bavington in 2024. He has confirmed that although it is a bit smaller, it is very similar to the one in the Edinburgh Collections, and probably came from the same workshop. In particular, the embossed paper decoration on the keyfronts is identical, and must have come from the same die. There are inscriptions in French and German on the underside of the soundboard, but these have so far not been deciphersble to deciphered . No ivory on this one!
Against an estimate of £5,000 - £8,000 it was sold for £7,000
Broadwood 3¼-octave Square Piano 1796
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Update - Original Records of the
History of This Piano
Including more about the Crawley Family
I hesitate to use the word 'unique', but I have never seen a miniature Broadwood like this, certainly not this early. The length is just 3' 3" (99.2 cm). The compass is F - a'', 3¼ octaves - approximately the range of normal human voices. There is no stand, but a large brass carrying handle at each end. The case is of mahogany, unusually including the spine, and the moulding and line-inlay continue all round
It is a genuine 1796 Broadwood beyond doubt, confirmed by the layout and detail, including the serial number 3295, the paper instruction label (in English and in French), the style and wording of the calligraphy (John Broadwood and Son), and the swept brass under-dampers.
Obviously some attention needed, but the soundboard and bridge are in very good condition.
Mary A Crawley? See Below.
But we are less sure about the flower painting - never used on Broadwoods originally as far as we know. The design is identical to that painted on Clementis and Rolfes, but not until about 1805. Also, the execution is not as good as the originals. So this decoration was almost certainly applied later. We do know that at some time after 1923 it was in the Broadwood Collection after their move to 158 New Bond Street, by courtesy of a donor.
UK Ivory Act exemption code U4SLL1PX
Update - the History of this Piano
Robert Simonson of the Surrey History Centre, the home of the Broadwood Archives, has very kindly undertaken diligent research into the history of this piano.
This detail from the 1796 ledger mentions, about half-way down, the sale of this piano for £10.10s (ten guineas) to Sir Peter Burrell, Privy Cousellor, former MP recently created Baron Gwydyr. He had a distinguished career in parliament and afterwards, and amongst other achievements he was one of the founders of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1787. Later, he was appointed Master of the Horse to the Prince of Wales (later George IV) .
Fast forward to the account of a Mrs G Crawley of Aldington Suffolk, moving to Cadogan Square London SW, where we read in the entry for 14 Jan 1914 of a spinet and a 'toy pf' being moved. Peter Bavington has very kindly contributed further research. 'Mary A Crawley' (see below) surely refers to Mary Alice Crawley (1870 - 1964) the wife of George A Crawley, (1864 - 1926) designer and architect. The ledger page is headed 'Mrs G Crawley' - until comparatively recently it was customary to refer to married women by their husband's Christian name. The couple were friends of the Dolmetsch family, and they also owned instruments by Henry Tull.
Robert has spent many hours studying these books, and as he has never encountered anything similar, we may conclude that it is indeed unique - a 'one off' - almost certainly made specially for Sir Peter Burrell, perhaps for one of his children.
He has futher observed that when any of Broadwood's pianos was given any kind of embellishment, such as 'Cyphers' or 'Trophies of Music' this was noted in the records, so we may indeed by confident that the flowers were added at a later date.
Our special thanks to Robert for this splendid piece of research.
Against an estimate of £400 - £800, this historically interesting and unique little pianos was sold for £1,450
Images from the Broadwood Archives by courtesy of the Surrey History Centre ©.
Beck & Corrie 1791
At first sight a conventional 1791 square piano on a French stand - the casters are detached but included).
But inside we see a soundboard extending over the keys. There are handstops for damper-lift and buff; the spring at back left is displaced (it should normally apply pressure to the damper unit, except when it is lifted for maintenance). The hinged batten above the nameboard is apparently part of a music-desk arrangement.
It is in need of restoration: as well as the usual cleaning, some attention is needed to the bridge which appears to have the rather common cracks where the grain is 'short'.
For some reason the name 'Corrie' has been obscured on the nameboard, but it remains as part of the signature on the soundboard, in accordance with Beck's standard practice. On the reverse of the nameboard is the inscription 'Vincent Topsham Ashton u Lyme 1906'.
It is the action that is unusal, certainly for an English piano - unique in my experience. I would describe it as a 'Prellmechanik' with an intermediate lever. This has the advantage of reversing the arc of rotation, which puts the hammer into a better position to fit the English square piano design.
UK Ivory Act exemption code A8XKWATC
Estimate £400 - 800, sold for £420
Also two from the December Sale making repeat appearances - Click on names:
The full catalogue of all the instriuments is now available on the Gardiner Hougate website All images by, and by courtesy of, Gardiner Houlgate www.gardinerhoulgate.co.uk
All images by, and by courtesy of, Gardiner Houlgate.
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