Hello Brian You said: " These are pics of an old Broadwood that I went to the other day. I wonder how it compares in age to Robert's? this about 1860" I comment: This looks identical to the one I had - a "Cottage Grand" No. 857 with a "fish-tail" end, just two strings per note - one per in the Bass. However in your photographs the engineered metal frame of struts and plates seems to be gilded. Mine was as original - all iron-work was painted very dark plum-red. Case veneered in Rosewood - lovely smell to it! Very crisp cabinet work on the music desk and the desk and candle-boards were fretted. Had fun re-stringing it! Because all the tuning pins had an engineering thread I had to work out how many turns I screwed in the pin before I introduced the string. If the pins were loose I used a fine grit tube of sand-paper (grit-side-out) which I pushed through the plate and into the wrest-plank before screwing the threaded pin into it. Also in mine there was a green oblong notice on the soundboard with advice to tuners about the amount of string to allow on the pin. In my 1827 Broadwood square piano there was also a similar notice but this related to "If the hammer fhould ftick bend the guide pin to eafe it" - or words like that in quaint olde English fpelling. Regards Michael G (UK)
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