Our own piano enthusiast Ric Overton is back with his second blogpost for the Vintage & Rare blog. This time the main focus is Collard and Collard pianos. Enjoy.
Collard and Collard
Among the pianos that I love and adore Collard and Collard would be one of my favorites, mostly because of the absolutely exquisite cabinetry and design. Collard and Collard are certainly among the nicest pianos with the most respected name in the industry world-wide.
F.W. Collard was baptized in 1772. The actual year of his birth is unclear. In or around 1786, he moved to London and at the age of fourteen he began working for a music publisher and pianoforte builder known as Longman, Lukey and Broderip.
Unfortunately, in the later part of the 1700’s Longman, Lukey & Broderip began to suffer some levels of financial problems and were forced to sell their interests to other investors. By the later part of 1800 a new company had emerged, owned by Muzio Clementi, Josiah Banger and F.W. Collard with a portion also going to David Davis. The new firm was known as Muzio Clementi & Company. The reason this name was chosen was that by this time Clementi had risen to substantial fame and notoriety as a composer and performer not to mention that he had also become quite wealthy.
It is not clear when David Davis left the company but it has been noted that Banger left in 1817 and William Frederick Collard came in. In 1831 the partnership between the Collard brothers and Clementi expired and in 1832 the company was renamed to Collard and Collard.
In 1842 William Frederick Collard retired and F.W. Collard became the owner of the company. He in turn took F.W. Collard Jr. (his brothers son) and Charles Lukey Collard (another nephew) in as partners of the firm.
Among the many changes that were made during the transition that the next few years would bring, is that Collard & Collard decided to completely divest themselves of the publishing business and concentrate mostly in piano building. One problem that arose is that they had a contract with India to provide bugles, drums and other musical instruments until the government of India was transferred to the Queen which left the family firm free to turn their collective energies solely to the manufacturing of pianos.
Over the years Collard and Collard were met with many successes. They won numerous design awards because of F.W.’s considerable talent as an engineer and good fortune smiled on them in several situations where they simply saw an opportunity and were able to react to the needs of the demands of their time.
Of course, along with the great accomplishments also came two devastating fires, one in 1807 which destroyed the Tottenham Court Road factory and again in 1851 when the newest factory on Oval Road in Camden Town was also completely destroyed.
In 1860 the firm announced the passing of F.W. and again the passing of W.F. in 1866. Interestingly, F.W.passed away in the same house on Cheapside where he arrived at the age of 14 and lived until he was 88.
The company was among the most celebrated piano companies in all of Europe. It was finally purchased by Chappell Piano Company of London in 1929 and remained in production until sometime in 1960.
Once you have the opportunity to see and experience Collard and Collard you will also see why this would rank among my favorite pianos of all times.
Ric Overton
Ric@PianoSD.com
PianoSD.com
