Collard square piano

therese hanley · Post by **therese hanley** » 30 Jun 2006, 15:31

I have found Collard & Collard, late Clementi Collard & Co. Square piano. Whereas the casing, body and fretwork are in good condition, the inside of body including hammers strings etc is in a mess. All the original 73 keys are in place. There appears to be a "third leg" at the back of the piano, I don't know its function or maybe it was supposed to be a pedal but there may be a piece missing off the end. I have found a number 26 written in pencil and a number 2330 printed on the left hand side inside casing. On the inside of the right hand side there is a number 1536 with the letters SPP or SIP before it. Can you enlighten me as to what these numbers relate to and also the letters. Why are there only 73 keys? Thanks.

Post by **Barrie Heaton** » 04 Jul 2006, 17:29

Pre 1820

Why are there only 73 keys?

That was the compass them see
http://www.uk-piano.org/history/compass.html

Barrie,

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 08 Jul 2006, 23:22

You've been reading THAT book again Barrie! Pre-1820 is nonsense, see my information at
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/piano ... mbers.html

Muzio Clementi died in March 1832, at Evesham. His body was taken to London,where a public funeral and interment in Westminster Abbey were held on March 29th. I have said on occasions that Clementi pianos cannot be any later than 1832, but Mike Beville points out that one of the most valuable assets for the firm of Clementi was the name. Instruments already in progress would have retained the name Clementi out of respect and good business sense. It is doubtful if they would have considered changing the name before the will was proved etc., and a complex will takes time. Clementi left about 300,000 pounds! By 1834 the name had certainly changed to "Collard and Collard, late Clementi", which remained the same until the name Collard and Collard was more established. Numbers preceded by letters are usually an indication that it is a dealer's stock number. The pedal would be a FIFTH leg. 73 notes was common then, 85 was rare in the 1830s, and most of the "great" composers only had 61 notes to work with.