The style and serial number (#4424) of this piano prove its manufacture to be 1799 making lie of the obviously retouched date on the nameboard of 1832. A thirty year-old piano must have proved such an embarrassment to its owner in the 1830s, that it was altered in an attempt to make it appear more modern! At that time, the original simple tapered square-leg table stand was discarded, and four much larger legs from a later piano—minus their casters—screwed to each corner of the piano’s bottom. The spine was veneered so the instrument might appear less crude if having to sit in the middle of a room rather than against a wall, and at some later stage, the lid was rehinged to the top of the spine. It is unlikely this attempted deception would have fooled a dilletante let alone a connoisseur, as any piano of this later period must have had a wider compass than five and a half octaves, as well as requiring a damper pedal. By the time this instrument was made in the late 18^th century, John Broadwood had involved his son in the business, and was producing over four-hundred square pianos a year.

This interesting piano was discovered in the basement of the School of Music by Carey Beebe in September 2020, and because of its fine keyboard and mostly original content, it was deemed worthy of sympathetic restoration. Its origins are unknown.

The restoration began with removal of the strings, and dismantling and cleaning of the action. The brass underdampers were heavily corroded and seized. The piano had had many strings poorly replaced over the years with heavier gauge wire, leaving most of the tinned brass hitchpins and the underlying hitchpin block itself in poor condition and requiring replacement. There was a long soundboard crack with vertical displacement, but as there was no detachment or splitting of the bridge, the repair could be effected without the removal of the soundboard. Several of the tuning pins had been drilled and others damaged, so several were replaced with reproductions and the instrument restrung. One extreme treble hammer was missing and had to be reproduced. Several of the leather hammer hinges throughout were weak or broken and required replacement. Many of the action cloths remain original, and the hammer coverings are at least early. A badly damaged area of satinwood crossbanding on the lid was replaced. The later mahogany veneer on the spine was in very poor condition and removed, and the lid rehinged to the spine exterior with brass hinges harvested from another Broadwood of the period.

The restoration was completed and the playing instrument returned to the School of Music in 2024. It is hoped that eventually a table stand from an identical Broadwood can be discovered so this instrument can rest on appropriate period legs. At that time, the missing brass lid hooks can be fitted, and a pine shade which originally covered the strings and action reproduced. The instrument can then be considered to be closest to the form it left the Broadwood workshop in 1799.

Pitch: A415.