Grand piano
Maker
Davison & Redpath
Date1789
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
Serial No.46
SignedIn ink on nameboard: Davison and Redpath Londini Fecerunt / 1789MarkingsPrinted paper label taped to bottom, right side: ESTATE OF ELIZABETH L. PEABODY / 1965
Stamped in top of pin block, right side: 46
Punched on spine, bottom, bellyrail, back of action frame, written in red on first key lever: 44
Punched on trestle stand: 33
DescriptionThis small grand piano is about 20 centimeters shorter than typical English pianos of the period. Little is known about Davison and Redpath. Phillip James [Early Keyboard Instruments. London: Peter Davies, 1930] lists Redpath and Davidson working in 1789. Rosamond Harding [The Piano-Forte: Its History Traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851. New York: 1973] also lists the names in reverse order, indicating 1767 as a date of activity.
Compass: FF-f3 (five octaves)
Modified Anglo-German action, similar to one patented by John Crang Hancock in 1790. The action is English, but the hammers face the opposite direction, like those of Viennese pianos.
Stringing: bichord throughout
Dampers throughout
Continuous bridge
No pedals or stops
Veneered in mahogany
Case:
One-piece beveled beech bridge cut to curve; double pinned from FF- c1, single pinned from f1-f3
Nut single pinned and meets case on both sides
Soundboard- pinus strobus (Eastern white pine) - perpendicular to gap
Bottom- probably pinus sylvestris (Scots pine)
Case veneered in mahogany with ebony and boxwood stringing
Solid mahogany lid with ebony and boxwood stringing
Oak entside, cheek, tail, and wrestplank
Satinwood veneer on nameboard and keywell with inlaid boxwood oval nameplate
Rectangular, pierced tuning pins
Three iron gap spacers between B-flat/B, b/c, and c2/c#2
Mahogany trestle stand with wood casters
Action:
Modified Anglo-German action similar to one patented by John Crang Hancock in 1790. (English jack mechanism but with hammers facing opposite direction)
Rectangular hammer moldings are slightly graduated from bass to treble.
Bass hammer molding is 25mm long, 7 mm wide, and 5 mm thick. Original hammer leather missing.
Round hammer shanks are made of beechwood and hinged with leather to the hammer rail.
Jacks are wood dowels, diameter 4 mm, on adjustable threaded brass rods.
Jacks have brass springs, are hinged to the key with leather, and are guided by a slotted rail.
The jacks escape through a hole in the rectangular hammer shanks, rather than into a notch in the hammer butt.
Dampers:
The dammers encompass the entire range of the piano and are similar to harpsichord dampers with upper and lower guides.
Dampers consist of one layer of cloth, probably not original, glued to a molding in the shape of a right triangle.
The hypotenuse of the triangle faces the keyboard, and bottom corner of the triangle rests on the strings, not between them.
Dampers are not graduated.
Keyboard:
Ivory naturals with two score lines.
Sharps of stained hardwood with ebony caps.
Key fronts have straight-line boxwood molding.
Keys guided by front rail pins.
Key frame is removed from the bottom of the piano.
DimensionsLength: 1683 mm (5' 6-1/4")
Width: 933 mm (3' -3/4")
Height: 768 mm (2'-6-1/4")
Height of case: 187 mm (7-5/16")
Case sides 210mm, thickness of bottom 140 mm.
Tail is 64 mm long and at 74 degree angle with the spine.
Keyboard three octive measure: 488 mm
Length of key heads: 40 mm
Width of key heads: 22 mm
Scaling:
FF 1304 mm; strike point 133 mm
C 1200 mm; strike point 112 mm
c 867 mm; strike point 77 mm
c1 539 mm; strike point 52 mm
c2 287 mm; strike point 36 mm
c3 151 mm; strike point 27 mm
f3 117 mm; strike point 27 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1981 from Jackson's Fine Piano & Organs, Rockford, Illinois. Previously owned by Elizabeth Learned Peabody, Lake Forest, Illinois, who brought it with her, when she married, from the Learned home in Natchez, Mississippi. Purchased in England by either the Learneds or the Styles family (maternal side of Elizabeth's family). Purchased from the Peabody Estate in 1965 by T. B. Honig, Chicago, Illinois.
Published ReferencesClinkscale, Martha Novak. Makers of the Piano 1700-1820 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 83.
"The Eternal Quest," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter , Vol. X, No. 1 (October 1982), p. 1.
Kelly, Rodger S. A Catalog of European Pianos in The Shrine to Music Museum, M.M. Thesis (University of South Dakota: 1991), pp. 23-27.
Kuronen, Darcy. A Pianoforte by Davison and Redpath, London, 1789: Its Historical Position and Restoration Consideration, M.M. Thesis (University of South Dakota: 1986).
-------. "An Unusual English Fortepiano," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. III, No. 3 (June 1987), pp. 1-3.
-------. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum," Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter, Vol. VI, No. 1 (October 1991), p. 10.
Larson, André P. The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), pp. 19, 41, 42, and 45.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 1981
Object number02906
On View
Not on view
