Grand piano
Maker
Clementi & Company
Date1832
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
Serial No.25256 (cumulative serial number in ink), 924 (serial number for this model)
SignedOn fallboard in gold on black (see comment below): patent / Clementi & Compy London. / Lee sc. / Stamped on the wrest plank, between the wrest pins and nut at c#2-e2: CLEMENTI & Co
Engraving on paper glued to the yoke: COLLARD & COLLARD / late / Clementi Collard & Collard / No 26. Cheapside & 195 Tottenham Court Road_ London
MarkingsIn pencil on back of the fallboard: Gray 924
In pencil on underside of bottom: Jourten [reading uncertain: might be Jouster]
14-5-32
Gray 924
Gray [this second “Gray” in very large letters sloping downward to the right]
in pencil on the upper side of the bottom, under the keyboard in the bass:
Gray
[a few illegible letters or numbers]
in pencil on the bass end block:
Ro G 117
924
stamped on the front of the upper belly rail:
RENDELD 116
stamped on the front of the hammer rail:
RUMSUM
stamped on interior of spine, under wrest plank:
728
stamped on the f4 key lever:
WV [reading of second letter uncertain]
DescriptionA relatively short grand piano with the standard English grand-piano action. Compass FF-f4 (6 octaves); ivory naturals with maple molding in front, ebony sharps; two pedals: una corda, dampers. Bichord stringing throughout; bridge and nut divided at F/F#. Iron hitch-pin plate (painted in gold color) with two iron struts to the wrest plank. There is one hitch pin for each pair of strings, i.e., the string loops around as in modern pianos; the holes in the wrest pins therefore original. Open-bottom construction. Visible exterior and interior surfaces of the case, lid, etc. veneered in rosewood; wrest plank and yoke veneered in maple. Front ends of spine and cheekpiece, around keyboard, S-curved. Egg-and-shaft molding near bottom edge of case exterior, all the way around. Three screw-on legs, turned with carved capitals; casters.
Also labeled Collard & Collard, late Clementi. From the Estate of Bunker Clark, donated by his widow.
This piano was probably substantially completed and provided with the “Clementi & Company” inscriptions just before Clementi’s death on 10 March 1832. Afterwards, before the piano left the factory, the paper label on the yoke was added with the new form of the company name, from which Clementi’s name was dropped, “Collard & Collard.”
In the inscription on the fallboard, Lee sc[ulpsit, i.e., “engraved (this)”] is the signature of the engraver of the plate, from which printing in size (varnish) was transferred to the board and sprinkled with gold-colored powder.
25256 (cumulative serial number in ink, at the bass end of the wrest plank) 924 (serial number for this model, stamped at the treble end of the wrest plank; also at the treble end of the key frame and on the bracket hold the hammer rail in the treble)
Dimensions(in mm):
Length of spine (excl. molding at the tail) to front of S-curve: 2112
Width of case at front of yoke: 1171
Height of case: 318
String lengths:
f4 54½
c4 69½
c3 143
c2 291½
c1 576
c1116
F#1392
F1208
C1426
FF1488
Published ReferencesRoger Martin, “The Piano’s Triumph: It Hammered out a Victory over the Plucky Harpsichord,” Explore: Research and Service at the University of Kansas, Summer 1982, pp. 6-7, with photo of Bunker Clark playing this instrument.
Martha Novak Clinkscale, Makers of the Piano, volume 2, 1820-1860 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 88-89, s.v., “Collard & Collard,” with erroneous date (as acknowledged in the author’s subsequent correspondence with Bunker Clark).
Credit LineGift in memory of J. Bunker Clark (1931-2003), by Marilyn Clark, 2004
Object number10774
On View
Not on view
