THE PERIOD PIANO COLLECTION

 Performing - Studying - Exhibiting - Conserving

A 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation    email contact

        Bill Shull, RPT, M.Mus.  Founder and President

       610 Amigos Dr C,  Redlands, CA  92373  909 796-4226     PERIOD PIANO CENTER SINCE 2006                       

We seek to rediscover the art of the piano as the composer heard it on the instruments of the time;  to collect and study the instruments themselves, conserving many for history, and performing on many, so we might rediscover history’s magic.  We exhibit and curate instruments, tell the great stories of piano and society, and study the history of the piano, its technology and its builders.

1827 Clementi and Company Square, London

Donated by Norman Purdy in 2021

Restored and in playable condition, this instrument is now on exhibit.  Factory foreman James Stewart’s name is imprinted inside the piano (Stewart was in the U.S. from 1814 until 1826, the last three years as senior partner in the Stewart and Chickering piano firm which began in 1823 in Boston, MA)

F1 to C7       72”x29”

James Stewart, who co-founded the Chickering shop in 1823 with Jonas Chickering, had returned to England by 1827 and became the foreman of Clementi.  Below are photos of his two patents, and the reference to it in the left photo.  Below left is his patented string loops (rather than ties), and below right is his seperate soundboard rim.  The same ideas show up in Chickering pianos.