E.Bishop & Sons piano

[CKTG]

I wonder if you could help me with more information about a family piano.

It was given to my great grandmother for her 21st birthday in Charleville, Co Cork, Ireland, secondhand in approx 1884. It has been back in London for over 100 years.

CF Bishop & Sons, London
St Lawrence Model, Improved Trichord, Upright grand, Steel frame.
Walnut case.

I would be interested in finding out more information about it, to try to get a member of the family interested in possibly keeping it. If not then it would be up for sale.

Looking forward to hearing from someone.
Regards
Claire

[Bill Kibby]

Are you sure about the initials C.F.? My problem is that in terms of names, I have references to about twenty different firms named Bishop, and none of them had those initials. Around the 1880s, E.Bishop & Sons made a number of models with model names connected with Canada, but I have no record so far of C.F.Bishop.

Is it possible that you could upload some photos here to show us what the whole piano looks like? Or you can email them to me at bill@pianohistory.info

I will have a look through my directories, in case I have missed C.F.

For information on upright pianos of that period, see
http://www.pianohistory.info/victorian.html

[Bill Kibby]

The photos show that it is E. Bishop, but it's a very fancy E.

It's a typical Edwardian piano as shown at
http://www.pianohistory.info/edwardian.html
and I would guess this one was made around 1900. It seems unlikely that it could have been secondhand in 1884, especially since the firm's name changed to E.Bishop & Sons around 1885, so perhaps it was brand new. If you want to search inside the piano for clues, have a look at
http://www.pianohistory.info/datemarks.html

[Xavier]

Trying to get information about my piano. Can someone help?