Rare Art Cased Upright Piano by Collard and Collard - 1880



Collard & Collard were a well-established firm of musical instruments makers whose name is stamped on the sound-board, immediately below the upper lid of this piano.
This is not the normal type of case for Collard and Collard and know that he would have had the piano sent out to be done by one of the known furniture firms at the time.



We attribute the gorgeous casework to H.W. Batley, famous for Aesthetic furniture which incorporated motifs, patterns and details taken from Japanese designs.



The use of naturalistic carving and beveled panels, with the keyboard supported on turned columns, on this piano shows how exotic styles influenced the design of Victorian domestic furniture.
You can see one of the Batley pianos in the Victoria Albert Museum.

















The illustrious Collard & Collard Piano Company was originally established as “Longman & Broderip” in 1767. Longman & Broderip was a music publishing house, but the firm also built a number of pianos and organs. The first listing for Longman & Broderip was at 26 Cheapside, London, later at 15 Haymarket, London. The famous composer and piano virtuoso, Muzio Clementi (whose music was published by Longman & Broderip) invested heavily in the firm, ultimately creating an association with F. W. and W. P. Collard under the name of “Clementi & Company”. Because of Clementi’s fame and fortune, the firm was very successful and grew at a rapid pace. F. W. Collard was also a mechanical genius, and he was awarded several patents for piano design and construction, and instruments by the firm were a sensation across Europe. Muzio Clementi retired by 1815 and the name of the firm was changed to “Collard & Collard”. During the middle 19th Century, the firm was managed by Charles Lukey Collard, and he continued to move the firm to the forefront of piano manufacturing in Europe, making Collard & Collard one of the most popular and successful European piano manufacturers of all time. In 1929, the firm was sold to the Chappell Piano Company of London, and the Collard & Collard name was produced until about 1960.