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Lot Essay
This unusual pianoforte enclosed in the form of a demilune side table is one of a small group of instruments built into contemporary furniture forms and the rarity of these instruments indicates that they were probably made to special order. In March of 1790, Longman and Broderip, London's leading firm of instrument makers and music dealers, advertised 'Piano Fortes in Commodes, Side Boards and Dressing Tables for convenience of small rooms' (see P. James, op.cit). Two square pianos by Frederick Beck, enclosed in marquetry cases attributed to the immigrant cabinet-maker Christopher Fuhrlohg, are discussed in Lucy Wood's Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1992, no.10, pp.115-121 and one of these is in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight.
This example of a demilune table-piano forms part of a group comprising at least four further extant examples (one in the National Museum of Ireland, another in the Ulster Museum and two in private collections in England, one of which may have been purchased from Tulira Castle, Ardrahan, Co. Galway, Sotheby's house sale, 16 June 1982, lot 214). These instruments are by the acclaimed Dublin keyboard-maker William Southwell, who devoted himself to the pianoforte from 1787 until 1793, after which he continued to work in London, winning the praise of Haydn and influencing the work of other makers such as John Broadwood. A pair of instruments enclosed in demi-lune tables was made by Southwell for the eldest daughters of the Duchess of Grafton, reputedly designed with the keyboard placed off center such that the instruments could be placed back-to-back for duo performances and the players would not have to face each other directly (The Connoisseur, September 1936, pp.170-171).
The cases in all these instruments is attributed to cabinet-maker William Moore of Dublin, who was previously apprenticed to the celebrated firm of Mayhew and Ince in London. The radiating fan-inlaid motif to the lid is characteristic of Moore's work. This piano has undergone alterations to the work and its action appears to have been converted from a square piano. Certainly it lacks the German/Austrian elements usually found in pianos produced by Southwell (for a full discussion of this maker and other pianos of this form, see A. Cobbe, 'Beethoven, Haydn, and an Irish Genius: William Southwell of Dublin', Irish Arts Review, 1998, pp.71-76). The nameboard above the keys bearing the signature 'Wm. Moore' is later penned and erroneously refers to the reputed maker of the case rather than the instrument-maker himself. These restorations were almost certainly undertaken by the late nineteenth century furniture-makers and restorers, M. Butler of Dublin, whose label is affixed to the underside of the case.
This example of a demilune table-piano forms part of a group comprising at least four further extant examples (one in the National Museum of Ireland, another in the Ulster Museum and two in private collections in England, one of which may have been purchased from Tulira Castle, Ardrahan, Co. Galway, Sotheby's house sale, 16 June 1982, lot 214). These instruments are by the acclaimed Dublin keyboard-maker William Southwell, who devoted himself to the pianoforte from 1787 until 1793, after which he continued to work in London, winning the praise of Haydn and influencing the work of other makers such as John Broadwood. A pair of instruments enclosed in demi-lune tables was made by Southwell for the eldest daughters of the Duchess of Grafton, reputedly designed with the keyboard placed off center such that the instruments could be placed back-to-back for duo performances and the players would not have to face each other directly (The Connoisseur, September 1936, pp.170-171).
The cases in all these instruments is attributed to cabinet-maker William Moore of Dublin, who was previously apprenticed to the celebrated firm of Mayhew and Ince in London. The radiating fan-inlaid motif to the lid is characteristic of Moore's work. This piano has undergone alterations to the work and its action appears to have been converted from a square piano. Certainly it lacks the German/Austrian elements usually found in pianos produced by Southwell (for a full discussion of this maker and other pianos of this form, see A. Cobbe, 'Beethoven, Haydn, and an Irish Genius: William Southwell of Dublin', Irish Arts Review, 1998, pp.71-76). The nameboard above the keys bearing the signature 'Wm. Moore' is later penned and erroneously refers to the reputed maker of the case rather than the instrument-maker himself. These restorations were almost certainly undertaken by the late nineteenth century furniture-makers and restorers, M. Butler of Dublin, whose label is affixed to the underside of the case.