Books › The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933 › scan 193
Scan 193
The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933
18 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 175. See the scan on archive.org.
1No. 87
3UPRIGHT PIANO
5ASTOR AND COMPANY
7ENGLISH
8EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY
10This is one of the early upright pianos resembling in appearance an old-time secretary. The case is of mahogany with heavily moulded cornice. Above the keyboard the whole front is formed of a panel of silk brocatelle, old rose in color, with frame of wood and narrow gilded moulding. The keyboard has ivory naturals and black sharps, with name-board and side panels of satinwood, decorated with sprays of leaves and musical emblems. At each side of the keyboard are movable candle slides. Below the keyboard are two doors, panelled with narrow gilded mouldings, flanked by shaped and moulded balusters trimmed with brass. Around the bottom of the case runs another moulding, carved and gilded. There are two pedals, piano and forte. Above the keyboard is the music rack. On the name-board, flanked at either end with deeply fretted and carved panels, is the name of the maker:
12ASTOR & COMPANY
1379 Cornhill, London
15At the back of the name-board appears the number 5894 and at the right the name, Webb, with the number 963. A silhouette portrait of a former owner playing a similar instrument hangs at the side of this piano.
17George Astor, elder brother of John Jacob, came to England from his home in Waldorf, near Heidelberg, about 1778. He secured employment as maker of musical instruments in London and induced his brother to join him. After serving their apprenticeship the brothers set up their own small shop. Later John Jacob settled in America but George remained in London where he became very successful. In 1798 he appears to have had two business addresses: 79 Cornhill and 27 Tottenham Street, and in 1800 was known as "Manufacturer of Grand and Small Pianofortes and Musical Instrument Maker to His Majesty's Army." In 1801-2 he seems to have taken
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.