POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Square piano made by Collard & Collard

Object No. 2001/53/1

This piano represents one of the last models of square pianos to be produced in England. The square piano was a significant development in piano design as it was the style built buy the first makers of the English piano tradition such as Johann Christoph Zumpe who began making pianos in London in the early 1760s. The square piano was more of a domestic instrument compared to the grand piano however by about the 1840s cottage upright pianos were becoming more popular for domestic use in England and throughout Europe. Although square pianos continued to be made in England up to the 1860s they were largely overshadowed by the upright piano. It is therefore unusual to see such a late example of the English square. Collard and Collard were one of the major piano manufacturers in England during the nineteenth century. By 1850 they were producing over 1,000 instruments per year which made them the only major English producer apart from Broadwood producing pianos in this quantity. Collard and Collard were a later manifestation of the Clementi Piano company who were also one of the leading piano makers of early nineteenth century London. They were particularly well known for their decorative work and to some extent early innovative improvements to the piano, although later in the century they were slow to react to other technological advances in piano design and possibly caused them to lose their share of the market. The company records were destroyed in a fire in 1964. This model instrument is thought to date from the period 1860-1865. It is classed as a square semi-grand piano with a compass of six and three quarter octaves and which appears to have been first introduced at the Great Exhibition of 1851 at Crystal Palace where the firm won a Prize Medal "for pianos and for their successful application of several improvements in pianoforte making." (from The Illustrated Exhibitor, John Cassell publishers, London, 1851, pp.xx-xxi). As this instrument also exhibits overstringing it is possibly similar to the model described in the 1862 International Exhibition, London, Report By The Juries (Society of Arts, London, 1863, Class XVI p.5) - "Collard and Collard (3383) exhibited...a square semi-grand with oblique strings especially prepared for hot climates". Michael Lea Curator, music & musical instruments May, 2001.