Brinsmead Arts & Crafts piano

[carmstrong]

I have a beautiful Arts and Crafts Brinsmead mahogany piano which dates, I guess from its serial number 52086, to 1905. Its decoration incudes simple but distinctive inlaid stylised copper leaves and hearts. I bought it in Glasgow. My question is - is there anyway I can find out who the designer was? I know Walter Cave and Bailliee Scott designed pianos for the firm.
Regards
C.A.R

[Gill the Piano]

Is there an arts & crafts museum or archive you could consult?

[Bill Kibby]

There are problems with dates of the earlier Brinsmead numbers, but the date should be about right by then. Although some of the initial summaries on internet searches seem to connect the names, I have no record of Brinsmead using Walter Cave or Hugh Baillie Scott, and no archives exist for Brinsmeads, so the only hope seems to be to plough through internet pages in search of Brinsmeads designed by them, and compare.

Google Images provides loads of Brinsmeads, Arts & Craft pianos, and examples by both designers, but a quick look today did not provide any answers.

Cave's designs are often very much in the typical Arts & Crafts style mentioned about halfway down my Edwardian page at
http://www.pianohistory.info/edwardian.html

[carmstrong]

Thank for the replies and suggestions for further searches. It is useful to know there is no Brinsmead archive so no hope there!.
The piano was sold by the prestigious piano wholesalers/ retailers T.A. Ewing who had a warehouse in Sauciehall St, Glasgow and the previous owner was called McIntyre, so I guess there's the slenderest of chances that there may be some Ewing records or that someone out there called McIntyre remembers the piano! Its more Voysey that Cave!

Regards
CAR

[Bill Kibby]

I have had some contact with the Ewing family, they have no archive material, but then very little is available, as explained at
http://www.pianohistory.info/archives.html

Is it possible that you could post photos of it here, or email them to me to post?

We might get some response if we knew exactly what it looked like.

[Bill Kibby]

It occurs to me to ask whether you have ever searched inside the piano for clues? Have a look at
http://www.pianohistory.info/datemarks.html

[carmstrong]

Dear Bill Kibby

Thanks for yours .
Yes we did search inside the piano but only the number. We also had the piano tuner have a look.
And yes I would like to post a picture of the piano. To what e mail address do I send the pics for you to do this?

Regards
CAR

[Bill Kibby]

There's an email button to the right of each of my posts, or you can find me at
http://www.pianohistory.info/

[vernon]

Can't we all see it?

[Bill Kibby]

That's why he is emailing it to me - to post it here.

[Bill Kibby]

This is the instrument, typical of the way Arts & Crafts upright pianos were designed, by several different designers, but harking back to the 1880s and Bechstein's "Medieval English" model.

[vernon]

It's lovely to see examples like this.
I've never seen one in my life tho' my family was with Brinsmeads for 2 generations as employees.
We did restore a very similar Bechstein a few years back tho' it had been somewhat vandalised in the case work tho' the giblets were fine.

[carmstrong]

Dear Bill Thank you for posting a picture of my Brinsmead piano

What I would love to know is who was the designer.
What I do know is that it was made c. 1905 and sold by piano wholesalers/ retailers, T.A.Ewing, in Glasgow
Its first owner may have been called McIntyre. So is there anyone out here who has the answer to my query?
CAR

[Bill Kibby]

I have looked through over a hundred photos of Arts & Crafts pianos, and not one of them shares the detail of this design, it is significantly different to all of them, so I have no clues about the designer.

Unless McIntyre was in the trade, I have no particular way of helping with that name.

Have you considered the idea that Brinsmead may have supplied an unfinished piano to McIntyre so that he could apply the decorative work?

This would mean that McIntyre was the designer, so it is worth researching that name as a designer.