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Piano

'The casework is of mahogany and rosewood decorated with brass banding, carved and gilt foliage, and plaques of cut horn and paper set on a blue ground to resemble Wedgwood jasperware medallions. The French-style frame has square tapered legs with gilt brass mounts. (The music stand is missing). The wrest-plank is of massive construction with a 50mm layer of beech laid on the same depth of pine. The bottom board is of oak rather than the lime or pine usually found on instruments in the English style of construction. The soundboard of spruce measures 3-4mm in diameter and a triangular piece has been inlaid at the right-hand rear corner. The scantlings are c. 18mm.' Howard Schott, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Part I: Keyboard Instruments (London, 1985), p. 109.

  • Date:
    ca. 1800 (made)
  • Maker:
    Flórez, Francisco
  • Collection:
    Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Inventory number:
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  • Place of production:
    Spain
  • Culture:
  • Period:
  • Materials:The small roundels are intended to resemble blue and white jasperware plaques, although they are in fact carved in horn or ivory on a blue ground. The blue ground is painted with details such as trees in a white bodycolour. Some of the horn is cut very thin and has been used to simulate water in the landscapes. The roundels are glazed. When the case was restored by the Museum's Conservation Department in 1963, the missing ivory medallions were replaced by coloured photostats. (These have subsequently been removed). For a discussion of the use of Wedgwood plaques to decorate pianos, see Alison Kelly, Decorative Wedgwood in Architecture and Furniture (Country Life, London, 1965) pp. 128-9.
  • Specific materials/techniques:
  • Decorative elements:
  • Inscriptions:Flórez Madrid Flórez
  • Hornbostel-Sachs category:
  • Repository:Victoria and Albert Museum
  • Measurements:Weight: 93.5 kg, Height: 909 mm, Width: 7140 mm, Depth: 595 mm [Square piano] Height: 29.1 cm, Height: 90.9 cm above floor, Width: 71.4 cm, Depth: 59.5 cm