W Thomson Upright

[mcleod39]

I have a piano with "W Thomson" stencilled on the front. The piano sounds very familiar to a piano described under the post: Burdett including the same 1901 Gold Medal at the Glasgow International Exhibition award stickers on the inside. The serial number is 27755. I do not know the exact age but it has been in my family for probably 100 years. The piano is now with me in British Columbia, Canada.

I have heaard mention of W. Thomson only a couple of times on this site (and so far the internet) and it is usually associated as a maker of other names (such as Burdett or Boyd). So far I have not found any history on W Thomson. Any help on finding information on the history of this maker would be appreciated.

The sound of the piano is unmatched, unfortunately our local piano tuner will no longer tune it as he fears the sound board may break. Is his fear warranted or can this piano still be tuned safely? The tuner probably does not run across too many old Scottish pianos in Western Canada.

[Bill Kibby]

I always have to make the assumption that people have checked the spelling, especially when the name is all we have, and all the instances I know of for this spelling are Scottish, which fits in with the Glasgow connection, although people came across whole continents to some exhibitions, so a piano exhibited in Scotland is not necessarily Scottish.

William Thomson was in business in Glasgow and branches from the 1890s, and became Thomson & Sons in the twenties. That doesn't necessarily mean he made the piano, and you will have to dig around inside in search of further clues. No dates of serial numbers are available, unless it turns out to have been made by a well-known firm. Thomson sold pianos with "Burdett" on them, and also sold "Boyd" pianos, that were probably not even made at the Boyd factory, many were not!

As far as the tuning is concerned, you are in the hands of the tuner on the spot, although it may be worth getting a second opinion. I wonder if you may have misunderstood him, people don't usually think of the soundboard as breaking, perhaps it was the wrestplank. Gradually pitch-raising is almost always possible, but as the pitch goes up, so does the risk of strings breaking, bridges cracking, etc. in an old piano. My approach to this is to severely limit the amount it is raised on each tuning, to about an eighth of a semitone. The exception is a piano that simply will not hold in tune, this is not a decision the tuner makes.

[joe]

W.Thomson was a piano/organ family business till 1973 who where bought by the Clydesdale Group who where an electrical retailer selling stereos,televisions etcThey never made their own pianos,more often than not they would modernise the case and redo action if a used piano and put on various trade-names,if its was a new piano they would use various trade names like Burdett,Windover which was a piano made by the Co-Op as the demand was so great for pianos at the time that their workshop could not cope with the demand.The company used to employ 13 french polishers,8 tuner/techs and 3 cabinet makers as they dealt mainly in affordable pianos that the man on the street could buy.The full Thomson history is very interesting and a great story.

[Bill Kibby]

Thanks for that, I have never made any connection between Windover and the Co-op.