JOHN BROADWOOD
John Broadwood & Sons may reasonably claim to have been the world's most prolific pianomakers, certainly in the nineteenth century, when they were one of London's top ten manufacturing companies, by turnover (of any product).
Here you will find the principal facts about them and their instruments.
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John Broadwood was working as a harpsichord maker in London in the 1760s. He was employed by the Swiss-born Burkat Shudi in Great Pulteney Street, as foreman, responsible for finishing soundboards and gluing them into new harpsichords – clearly an important task. However, in 1769 Shudi's health was in decline, and as his only surviving son, Burkat junior, was not considered suitable to succeed his father, the flourishing business together with the house and workshop was placed in John Broadwood's hands. His crafts skills were of the highest order; his sincere Christian convictions agreed well with Shudi's; and his choice of Barbara Shudi (Burkat's youngest daughter) for a wife — these must all have contributed to Shudi's decision to place the inheritance with Broadwood, giving him possession in 1771. There was a condition, that during the remainder of Shudi's life Broadwood would pay his father-in-law a premium on every new harpsichord sold. Shudi moved to Charlotte Street, near Whitefield's Chapel on Tottenham Court Road. Only two years later, in August 1773, he died and was buried in a reserved plot in the south-west corner of the burial ground.
Thereafter Broadwood continued the workshop alone. You may read elsewhere that until 1793 he was in partnership with Shudi's only surviving son, Burkat junior, but that is a fiction. In truth Broadwood was in sole charge. Young Burkat had been left no share in the family business. The reasons for this were never mentioned, but a possible explanation is that the son was either of feeble intellect, or had some other disability. It is clear that the terms of Burkat Shudi's Last Will & Testament invoked drastic penalties on his son if he attempted to work for anyone other than John Broadwood – and this had the desired effect. He received a small annuity. He had his own room at Great Pulteney Street; but he had no executive role in the business. His cousin, Joshua Shudi, a very competent harpsichord maker who had previously worked in Great Pulteney Street, was also omitted from any family inheritance, for reasons mentioned in my book (see below).
So, from 1773 Broadwood had effectively sole possession of the business and the lease of the house. During his first seven years, daily work continued as before, making and selling harpsichords. These were inscribed, Burkat Shudi et Johannes Broadwood long after the firm's founder had died. This makes sense: potential harpsichord buyers knew of the firm under Shudi's name, and everyone with musical connections in London knew where to find the house. And Mr. Shudi (Burkat junior) was still in residence, and occasionally hired out his own harpsichord - made by his father.
Increasingly, from 1770 onwards, some of Broadwood's clients asked him to tune or repair square pianos. These are rarely identified in Broadwood's Journal, but were presumably instruments made by Zumpe & Buntebart, Pohlman, Beck or Beyer. Some of them may have been grand pianos. I note that he (or someone sent by him) twice tuned a piano-forte for 'Mrs. Grassi' [as a favour for J.C.Bach], when Americus Backers was too ill to attend. However, harpsichords maintained their premier status for many years. Moving against the tide of history, some people who were thinking of buying a new harpsichord asked him to take their square pianos in part exchange! Often Broadwood obliged, but he usually disposed of these pre-owned pianos through trade contacts. Very occasionally he sold one of these pianos to an end user, as when he re-sold Mrs. Northey's piano (see Mrs. Northey link on home page). He also responded positively to requests for short term square piano hire, not with instruments of his own making, but generally passing the business, either to Christopher Ganer, who lived in nearby Broad Street, or to Frederick Beck.
Nevertheless, harpsichords remained the prestige item. Broadwood usually sold them for thirty guineas for a single manual, and seventy guineas for a double with patent swell pedal. Sales increased too, so during the 1770s there was little incentive to begin making square pianos, which sold for eighteen guineas or less.
The photo below shows a harpsichord with machine stop and swell pedal, at the Bate Collection, Oxford, restored by Michael Cole, 1993. Formerly in the Taphouse Collection, Oxford.
Observe: the word Patent at the end of this inscription relates to the 1769 patent granted to Burkat Shudi, which he later transfered to Broadwood. This patent expired after the usual term of fourteen years, in 1783. Broadwood then applied for a new patent, for what was to become his distinctive square piano design. Consequently the inscriptions on Broadwood's square pianos before 1783 lack the word Patent.
Now the big question: when did Broadwood begin making pianos?
Certainly not in 1774, as so many books and websites tell you! True, there is a square piano at Fenton House, Hampstead, inscribed: Johannes Broadwood Londini fecit 1774. This instrument was bought by David Wainwright at the dispersal sale of the Broadwood Collection and later given to the National Trust. However, this inscription is fraudulent. It is not even skillfuly done. Who did it, and why, we cannot say for certain. The story begins on 24 March 1897 when this piano was purchased by Broadwood & Sons for their collection of historic instruments, probably at the suggestion of Alfred Hipkins: the seller was noted as Mrs. Coram, of Willis Road, Cambridge. Once in the Broadwood Collection it was accepted as genuine for the next hundred years. However, when compared with authentic inscriptions it is clear that this text was fraudulently added to an old piano. The person who did this could not resist adding some ill-considered floral inlays, obviously in Victorian style, but never completed them. Close examination of the piano's construction, particularly its unusual pedal mechanism, strongly suggests that it was made by Christopher Ganer.
David Wainwright also suggested in Broadwood By Appointment (a book commissioned by the company) that John Broadwood began piano manufacture soon after Zumpe's instruments came into fashion, giving 1770 as the date of his first known piano. This is repeated in many secondary sources, but it is simply not true. He did not make or sell this piano. It was owned by Miss Pelham, who called on Broadwood to tune instruments on many occasions. In 1770 she asked him to transport her piano to Brighton. There is no suggestion that it was made by Broadwood.
There are two claimants for the honour of being the oldest known square piano by Broadwood. They are very similar to one another and are both dated 1780. Above the keys they are inscribed exactly like the harpsichord shown above, by the same hand, on the same style of cartouche. This agrees well with John Broadwood's own account Book: 1780 marks the start of his piano production. He sold six that year, and the name of each buyer can be found in Broadwood's Journal now in the manuscripts department of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. (Possibly he made the first experimental examples in 1778, but that is not certain.) In 1781 and 1782 his output increased rapidly, and by 1784 he was selling a hundred a year. NOTE: you may read on the company's website that John Broadwood had made fifty square pianos by 1775. This is completely untrue. There is no evidence for their claim.
It was not until 1785 that Broadwood sold a grand piano. Two were sent out that year, but again, it is not certain that they were made by him. Their low price [fifty guineas] may indicate that they were probably refurbished instruments, perhaps by Backers or Stodart. The oldest known grand pianos signed by Broadwood date from 1787: this we may take to be his start-up year. Two are known to survive from that year. Like his square pianos these early grand pianos had exactly five octaves. However, from 1792 five-and-a-half octaves became the norm, adding seven notes in the treble, up to c, though five octave examples were still often supplied. A very handsome grand piano of John Broadwood's make is shown below.
Broadwood Grand Piano, 1802, restored by Michael Cole
For square pianos a distinctive method by which the keys for "additional notes" operated underneath the soundboard was patented by William Southwell in 1794, and he had sold exclusive rights to Longman & Broderip. Resident in Ireland, Southwell did not at first respond when his system was used without permission, but following republican riots in Dublin when he and his family were threatened, he moved to England and there in 1803 he took John Broadwood and his son James Shudi Broadwood to court. Unhappily for him, a clever lawyer engaged to defend Broadwood seized upon some needlessly extravagant claims in the patent, successfully undermining the credibility of the whole document. (After this miscarriage of justice it became a free-for-all. Every pianomaker in London made use of Southwell's ideas without paying him a penny.) Nevertheless, writing in 1838, long after the event, James Shudi Broadwood acknowledged that Southwell's innovations were 'a manifest improvement'.
Above is an example of Broadwood's early five-and-a-half octave pianos, dated 1797. It is unusual in retaining its original inner cover board, and rests on what Broadwood termed a 'French Frame' with square tapered legs. It has no pedal, and no handstops, and the internal mechanism retains the characteristic brass under dampers, essentially the same as in Broadwood's patent of 1783. (NB the fetwork at either side of the nameboard was probably inserted later by Broadwoods – it was not customary before 1802.)
In 1805/6 Broadwood's patented brass under-dampers were abandoned in favour of the type developed from another of Southwell's ideas. These are the so-called 'dolly dampers'; silent in action, easy to adjust, and readily suited to a legato pedal technique. In the same period Broadwood square pianos gained an escapement action — again, not an original idea but developed from a design patented by John Geib in 1786 — this patent having expired in 1800. This gave a much more expressive touch — 'grand piano touch' as Broadwood's catalogues of the period say. These instruments are the most frequently encountered Broadwood square pianos today. Properly restored and maintained they make excellent instruments with a reliable touch and a very pleasant tone.
John Broadwood & Sons square piano 'Elegant model' of 1815, with drawers for music, five-and-a-half octaves.
By 1808 John Broadwood, then in his seventies, had been joined in the business by two of his sons — James from his first marriage, to Barbara Shudi, and Thomas from his second marriage to Mary Kitson. Together these half brothers, with complementary talents, developed the business so that Broadwoods' became the biggest piano manufacturing firm the world had ever seen. The brothers became very prosperous, enjoying the lifestyle of wealthy country gentlemen. The prestige of the company was very high on the concert scene, their grand pianos being very much in demand, yet, until 1850 square pianos were always Broadwood's best-selling product. The later ones had six-and-a-half octaves and a metal plate inside over the soundboard. Many hundreds survive. One of the most basic yet most cherished examples is the plain mahogany six-octave piano of 1844 that Edward Elgar acquired as a reconditioned instrument in the 1890s for use in his hideaway cottage at Birchwood Lodge, on the Malvern Hills. On that instrument he composed several of his most celebrated works, listing them on the soundboard, in his own hand. It is now displayed with the instruments of the Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands, Surrey.
There is much more to know about John Broadwood's life and work. For more information and many more illustrations see the following book.
A new biography of John Broadwood, describing his progress as perhaps the most eminent piano maker ever, and emphasising the important role of square pianos as his principal product line. In a quality hardback binding of 205 pages, with more than 60 illustrations, it incorporates significantly revised biographical information, social and musical contexts for these pianos, details of construction and production figures, and serial numbers etc.
Dr Alastair Laurence, CEO of John Broadwood & Sons Ltd., writes: 'your publication is very much appreciated, and will continue to be so for many years to come.'
UK Price £35 (incl. post and packing) if purchased directly from Tatchley Books (for dispatch to a UK address); Overseas: we had to revise the price due to ever rising postal charges. Europe £42, USA & others: £49 prompt dispatch by airmail, when using Paypal. Please add £3.20 if you wish it to be tracked.
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