Collard & Collard Patent Repeater Action, London

[Rob Goodale]

Hello everyone-
I've been off the list for a very long time but have been lurking for the 
last couple weeks.

This Collard & Collard reminds me of one of the most bazaar and nonsensical 
heaps I have ever come across- and probably ever will.

A number of years ago the local big dealer took what they thought was a 
Collard & Collard upright in on trade.  It had a beautiful carved case as 
described.  The black keys had very unusual rounded ends which nestled into 
rounded corners of the white keys.  The front was glass with elaborate 
carved wood in front that resembled leaded art glass.  There was also a 
digital player in it of unknown origin.  The piano was not working properly. 
The keys felt mushy and in general the piano did not sound very good.  The 
player did not work at all.  One day the music store called me in to have me 
take a look-see.

What I found was incredible.  Someone must have put hundreds of hours labor 
into this thing.  Inside it was in fact a Marshall & Wendell upright. 
Someone disassembled both pianos and then reassembled the parts in order to 
convert the Marshall & Wendell into looking like the Collard & Collard.  The 
keys were too short so they had to cut them half way and insert new wood to 
elongate them.  A spline joint was used and they were all coming unglued and 
breaking which explained why the keys felt mushy.  Very little of anything 
lined up.  The Collard & Collard was actually slightly taller then the 
Marshal & Wendell so there was a spacer at the top to make up the 
difference.  What appeared to be leaded art glass in the front was actually 
plexiglass.  The elaborate carving on the front was made from 1/8" stained 
plywood and had been cut by hand on a scroll saw.  That task alone must have 
taken many hours.  Furthermore the Marshall & Wendell was in it's original 
unrestored state, complete with flat ugly hammers and rusted strings.

The tale goes on.  The "digital player" was entirely home-made!  Floppy 
disks were played through a generic stand-alone compact sequencer.  The 
output was run through a variety of home-designed circuits with confusing 
wiring.  To make things more complicated there were no solenoids.  Instead 
the note data triggered a series of tiny magnetic valves linked to a set of 
pneumatics.  These were made almost entirely out of aluminum and powered by 
a suction box. None of it worked and I doubt it ever worked well in the 
beginning.

Why someone would torture themselves with such a futile goofy project is 
beyond comprehension.  If they had simply rebuilt the Collard & Collard to 
begin with and installed a PianoDisc system it would have probably taken a 
quarter of the time and actually worked!

Rob Goodale, RPT
Las Vegas, NV



Subject: Collard & Collard Patent Repeater Action, London


> Had an interesting call this morning.  A lady bought a beautiful antique 
> that she wants to be able to play.  It is a 1851 Collard & Collard ~238cm 
> grand in pearwood veneer with fancy carvings.  Ivory keys in fine and 
> yellowed condition.  Case needs work, lid is loose, hinged keyslip doesn't 
> fit right... ...
>
> All keys were playing when she got it, some aren't now.