My great grandfather was a piano tuner and sold pianos marked with the transfer J F Palmer, Hanwell or JF Palmer, Vauxhall Bridge Rd.
Has anyone got one?
J F Palmer Pianos
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Bill Kibby
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Palmer
All I have on computer so far is that he was a tuner at 76 Boston Road, Hanwell in 1911.
Piano History Centre
http://pianohistory.info
Email via my website.
If you find old references or links on this site to pianogen.org, they should refer to pianohistory.info
http://pianohistory.info
Email via my website.
If you find old references or links on this site to pianogen.org, they should refer to pianohistory.info
John Francis Palmer (1850-1918)
The Palmer family fortunes have been linked to the piano ever since 1821 when a country boy named George Simons married into the Wisdoms at Potton, Bedfordshire. Little is known about him but shortly after marrying Ann Wisdom, he established himself in Cambridge as the city’s first and only piano manufacturer.
When Ann’s brother died in 1835 the Simons took pity on his five year old son, Francis, and raised him in their family home where he eventually learnt the piano trade. Francis William Wisdom in turn set up as a tuner in Edinburgh before moving to Inverness where he advertised “A selection of Fine Rosewood Pianofortes the tone; Durability; and Cheapness cannot be surpassed in any Warehouse in the Kingdom!” (Inverness Advertiser, 4 January 1859). At that time he was the only tuner for the whole of northern Scotland. It was in Inverness on 26 January 1865 that he apprenticed his nephew, John Francis Palmer at the age of fifteen.
John Frances later moved back to London and, after getting a job at one of the leading piano manufacturers, J. Kirkham & Sons, set up in business on his own, selling from premises in Vauxhall Bridge Road and tuning well into the Midlands. His area covered Derby, Market Harborough, Uppingham, Gretton and Bourne, Lincolnshire as well as London. It was at the turn of the century that he relocated to Hanwell, a rapidly expanding suburb with a good rail service, in order to concentrate on tuning.
After the First World War John Francis passed his business onto Frank Arthur Palmer who in turn supported his own son’s desire to become a concert pianist. Frank Arthur was the last link in a family of tuners whose rise and fall echoed that of the piano itself.
The Palmer family fortunes have been linked to the piano ever since 1821 when a country boy named George Simons married into the Wisdoms at Potton, Bedfordshire. Little is known about him but shortly after marrying Ann Wisdom, he established himself in Cambridge as the city’s first and only piano manufacturer.
When Ann’s brother died in 1835 the Simons took pity on his five year old son, Francis, and raised him in their family home where he eventually learnt the piano trade. Francis William Wisdom in turn set up as a tuner in Edinburgh before moving to Inverness where he advertised “A selection of Fine Rosewood Pianofortes the tone; Durability; and Cheapness cannot be surpassed in any Warehouse in the Kingdom!” (Inverness Advertiser, 4 January 1859). At that time he was the only tuner for the whole of northern Scotland. It was in Inverness on 26 January 1865 that he apprenticed his nephew, John Francis Palmer at the age of fifteen.
John Frances later moved back to London and, after getting a job at one of the leading piano manufacturers, J. Kirkham & Sons, set up in business on his own, selling from premises in Vauxhall Bridge Road and tuning well into the Midlands. His area covered Derby, Market Harborough, Uppingham, Gretton and Bourne, Lincolnshire as well as London. It was at the turn of the century that he relocated to Hanwell, a rapidly expanding suburb with a good rail service, in order to concentrate on tuning.
After the First World War John Francis passed his business onto Frank Arthur Palmer who in turn supported his own son’s desire to become a concert pianist. Frank Arthur was the last link in a family of tuners whose rise and fall echoed that of the piano itself.