Grand piano
Date1795
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedIn ink on nameboard: Mattæus et Gulielmus Stodart Londini Fecerunt 1795. / Golden SquareMarkingsnone
DescriptionCompass: FF to c4 (68 notes)
2 pedals: una corda, dampers
English grand action
Four iron gap spacers
Bridge and nut divided at G#/A
Case exterior veneered in mahogany with holly stringing and mahogany crossbanding.
Stringing: trichord throughout
In 1983 the piano was part of the exhibit, "A Century of Keyboard Instruments, 1760-1860," Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.
DimensionsLength (excluding moldings): 2224 mm
Width (excluding moldings): 1037 mm
Total height, including stand and lid: 925 mm
Three-octave measure: 487 mm
String length: c2: 282 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1992 from Ian Pleeth, Aylebury, Buckinghamshire, England.
Previously part of the Alec Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park, East Clandon, Surrey, England. In 1984, Cobbe sold the piano to Ian Pleeth, Hulcott, Aylesbury, England.
Published ReferencesClinkscale, Martha Novak. Makers of the Piano 1700-1820 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 285-286.
Cobbe, Alec. A Century of Keyboard Instruments 1760- 1860 (Cambridge, England: Fitzwilliam Museum, 1983), p. 26.
Koster, John. "The Divided Bridge, Due Tension, and Rational Striking Point in Early English Grand Pianos," Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society, Vol. XXIII (1997), pp. 7, 14, 29-32.
Larson, André P. “The Eternal Quest . . . Museum Acquires Rare 18th-Century Grand Piano,” The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XX, No. 1 (October 1992), pp. 1-3.
Skyrm, Susanne. ed., with assistance from Calvert Johnston and John Koster, Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Spanish Keyboard Music for Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, or Clavichord (Colfax, North Carolina: Wayne Leupold Editions, 2010), p. 55.
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1992
Object number05281
On View
Not on view
