Broadwood grand

[Michael Gamble]

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)