Collard & Co. grand info needed

[Rob Kiddell]

Greetings list, 

	I was called to tune a "garage sale grand" as the woman put it, and 
dreading a square grand, it actually turned out somewhat different.

It was a 82" Collard & Co. 75 note grand, serial 4166. English 
style rosewood square tail case & round-top polygonal legs with the 
distinctive bent brass casters and  2 wooden! pedals. It is  
straight strung bichords top to bottom (22 bass bichords on a 
separate bridge in front of the treble bridge).  The keyboard compass 
ranges from F0 to G6, ivory naturals & ebony sharps. The action is a 
single escapement, similar to a 1899 Bosendorfer that I serviced, and 
the damper wires are glued on vellum flanges to the underlevers 
(several had come unglued). The hammers were extremely light, felted 
over a mahogany? mouldings. The upper half of the strings were strung 
through a brass agraffe/ v-bar rail, the bottom half through regular 
bridge pins. The iron  plate covered the entire soundboard area, but 
had 4 long metal braces extending forward to the strecher from the 
front of the plate.  
	The overall condition of the instrument is good, soundboard & 
bridges are intact with minimal hairline cracks (S. Birkett, are you 
listening?) and the case is in fair to good shape. Unfortunately, 
someone has restrung it with standard blued tuning pins and what 
looks like larger gauge steel piano wire, which looks definitely out 
of place on this instrument. The sound with this wire is the sound 
you get when you tune a conventional piano a 5th below pitch, that 
hollow, quiet, no-sustain sound. 

	Right, questions:

1)	What type of pitch should this beast be tuned to (assuming that 
the new wire will accept whatever the original wire would). I set the 
instrument (at the owners request) a full tone flat from A440, as 
this was where it was closest to sitting. The center section had a 
tendancy to drop while the extreme ends were tuned, but a couple of 
passes stabilized it. 
2) 	According to the Pierce Atlas, the date on the instrument is ca. 
1820. This seems much to early, and a more similar instrument is in 
"Piano,  A History of the World's Most Celebrated Instrument" by 
David Crombie, p. 32, a Robert Wornum 1852 grand. Also, from 
1822-1832, Collard & Collard was known as Clementi, Collard & 
Collard, after the company's founder, Muzio Clementi. This instrument 
has 'Collard & Co.' stamped on the pinblock.  Also, the action is 
almost identical to the 1899 Bosendorfer, saying to me that this 
piano is post-1850, at least.  

If there is anyone who can shed some light in this instrument for me 
(& the owner), please e-mail me privately at  atonal@planet.eon.net

Thanks, 

Rob Kiddell
R.P.T., P.T.G.
C.A.P.T. Student
Edmonton, Canada
http://www.planet.eon.net/~atonal/atonal.html