Description

Broadwood Grand Serial number ****7 year***2 A Piano Made For A Palace! AN ENGLISH NEO-GOTHIC PARCEL-GILT OAK GRAND PIANO BY JOHN BROADWOOD & SONS, LONDON, SERIAL NO. *1, **7, THE CASE AFTER A DESIGN BY JOHN MOYR SMITH, THIRD QUARTER*9TH CENTURY The top with three large brass hinge straps, above trefoil-arched sides terminating in relief-carved panels depicting courtly recitals, on octagonal legs with acanthus-carved capitals, the keyboard cover carved in relief John Broadwood & Sons London, stamped ****7 W&G to the under side of the lid. **0 cm long. Provenance William Abbot, at the Abbey, Kensington, ***2. The records of John Broadwood & Sons Ltd. detail that this piano was built at their Horse ferry Road workshops, Westminster, London, and finished on *2 December ***1. On *0 January ***2 it was sold to William B. Fordham, a wholesale piano dealer, for the considerable sum of **0 pounds sterling. However it is clear that Number *1, **7 was a special order from a certain William Abbot who subsequently paid a retail price of **0 pounds sterling (This would be approximately**0, **0 pounds sterling equivalent in ***1). William Abbot, a wealthy stockbroker, had ordered the piano for his new house The Abbey which occupied a sizeable1 1/2 acre plot on Campden Hill Road, Kensington. It is clear that this grand piano was ordered to compliment the interior decorations of the The Abbey, which was completed in ********0 by architect Henry Winnock Haywood in the decorated Gothic style. This piano is a &#**9;model number *4 A grand pianoforte made to order in oak case, Gothic design according to drawings&#**9;. Further research shows that the designer of the case work was John Moyr Smith (********9) who is principally remembered for his pseudo-medieval designs adapted to tiles by Minton & Hollins. Designs by Moyr Smith also feature to a pair of Mintons pale-blue and gold ground vases which were made for the Paris***8 Exposition Universelle .