J.C. Browne piano

[aydbro]

I have just received a piano for free and I would like the history of it if possible: It is an upright with the makers name J C Browne 154 Brecknock road Camden road London, there are 2 lots of numbers inside, they are 48946 and WsL 3511.
Any information would be gratefully recieved

Adrian

[Bill Kibby]

I used to think that perhaps the Edwardian pianos of Joseph Charles Browne might have followed on from the Victorian pianos by Justin Browne, but the two firms were separate, and overlapped at different addresses at the same time. Bronwe was established in 1881, and disappeared in the thirties. No dates of numbers are published, but #30999 was sold in 1913 for £29 8s. so yours would be later. The following link may give you some idea of the sort of thing they usually are...
http://www.piano-tuners.org/piano-forum ... f=2&t=8859

Obviously, without photos, we can't tell you anything about the individual piano, we haven't seen it...

[Colin Nicholson]

Bronwe was established in 1881,

Bill.... I nearly let you off you here, but since you pull me about certain things, and since your HUGE post about spelling mistakes.... should you not be beheaded & sent to the gallows for spelling 'Browne' incorrectly!!! ???

[Bill Kibby]

Yes, it makes him sound a bit welsh. My unique typing is in the style of Eric Morecambe, "all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order" but I don't have this problem with piano keys. I revisit my postings several times to check, and am subject to the same scrutiny as everyone else, so if you hadn't been so quick off the mark, I would have fixed it. I try to be accurate and I am my own worst critic.

Sometimes, I find I have typed an entirely wrong word, like "money" instead of "moment", still, I have only been typing since 1965, so perhaps I will get it right one day?

Can anyone with degrees in English advise me about the eternal question - whether national adjectives such as "welsh" should have capitals? Whichever way I do it, somone complains.

[NewAge]

Bill,
Traditionally, the adjective 'Welsh' should indeed have a capital letter.
If someone does complain, explain (as we all should know) that not only proper names begin with a capital, (e.g., Easter, England, Atlantic, Mr.Smith etc.), but also words derived from proper names, (e.g., Welsh, English, Christian, etc.)

Now just wait for some nerdy, ultra-modern professor to come along and tell us all, that in a new SMS dictionary the word 'Welsh' is acceptable in an abbreviated form and without a capital......

Now back to that Browne piano, .....or whatever colour it was. (Incidentally my automatic spell-checker just kicked in, and announced that should read 'color'). But we know better!

[Bill Kibby]

I was taught exactly that, and went along with the capitals for years, until people started telling me I shouldn't. I should add that some of the stuff I was taught, and bothered to learn, turns out to be wrong anyway!

I wouldn't worry either way, but anything for a quiet life.

If you start me talking about "modern" we will get into things like open punctuation, which means not bothering to punctuate at all.

I confess to being distracted by your avatar. Did you pose for it?

[Gill the Piano]

Yes, that avatar caused worries in the winter about pneumonia...

[Bill Kibby]

It keeps me warm, quite flushed actually!