A FINE ROSEWOOD, IVORY AND MARQUETRY-INLAID GRAND PIANO, by John Brinsmead & Sons, the shaped hinged top outlined with boxwood and with a floral marquetry inlay to each corner, the keyboard lid with a boxwood-outlined marquetry panel, centred by an oval with musical trophies and flanked to each side by ribbon-tied foliate garlands, the case inlaid with seven rectangular marquetry panels within moulded and boxwood-outlined frames, each with ribbon-tied floral garlands, alternately inlaid to the centre with a tambourine-playing muse within an oval and Venus and Cupid with the eternal flame of Love, within a rectangular canted frame, above a frieze of foliate garlands and roundels, raised on six square-tapering legs, outlined with boxwood and inlaid with ribbon-tied foliate husks, united by an undertier and with brass cappings and castors, the movement with a painted rectangular panel to the soundboard signed JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS, LONDON and decorated with the various International Exhibition medals from 1876 to 1886 and numbered 41195, with a boxwood and marquetry panel above the keys signed in a ribbon-tied drapery festooned tablet JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS/LONDON, with a lyre-shaped triple pedal support58½in. (148.5cm.) wide; 41¼in. (104.5cm.) high; 80½in. (204cm.) deep

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

A FINE ROSEWOOD, IVORY AND MARQUETRY-INLAID GRAND PIANO, by John Brinsmead & Sons, the shaped hinged top outlined with boxwood and with a floral marquetry inlay to each corner, the keyboard lid with a boxwood-outlined marquetry panel, centred by an oval with musical trophies and flanked to each side by ribbon-tied foliate garlands, the case inlaid with seven rectangular marquetry panels within moulded and boxwood-outlined frames, each with ribbon-tied floral garlands, alternately inlaid to the centre with a tambourine-playing muse within an oval and Venus and Cupid with the eternal flame of Love, within a rectangular canted frame, above a frieze of foliate garlands and roundels, raised on six square-tapering legs, outlined with boxwood and inlaid with ribbon-tied foliate husks, united by an undertier and with brass cappings and castors, the movement with a painted rectangular panel to the soundboard signed JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS, LONDON and decorated with the various International Exhibition medals from 1876 to 1886 and numbered 41195, with a boxwood and marquetry panel above the keys signed in a ribbon-tied drapery festooned tablet JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS/LONDON, with a lyre-shaped triple pedal support 58½in. (148.5cm.) wide; 41¼in. (104.5cm.) high; 80½in. (204cm.) deep

Details

A FINE ROSEWOOD, IVORY AND MARQUETRY-INLAID GRAND PIANO, by John Brinsmead & Sons, the shaped hinged top outlined with boxwood and with a floral marquetry inlay to each corner, the keyboard lid with a boxwood-outlined marquetry panel, centred by an oval with musical trophies and flanked to each side by ribbon-tied foliate garlands, the case inlaid with seven rectangular marquetry panels within moulded and boxwood-outlined frames, each with ribbon-tied floral garlands, alternately inlaid to the centre with a tambourine-playing muse within an oval and Venus and Cupid with the eternal flame of Love, within a rectangular canted frame, above a frieze of foliate garlands and roundels, raised on six square-tapering legs, outlined with boxwood and inlaid with ribbon-tied foliate husks, united by an undertier and with brass cappings and castors, the movement with a painted rectangular panel to the soundboard signed JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS, LONDON and decorated with the various International Exhibition medals from 1876 to 1886 and numbered 41195, with a boxwood and marquetry panel above the keys signed in a ribbon-tied drapery festooned tablet JOHN BRINSMEAD & SONS/LONDON, with a lyre-shaped triple pedal support
58½in. (148.5cm.) wide; 41¼in. (104.5cm.) high; 80½in. (204cm.) deep

Lot Essay

John Brinsmead (d.1908) founded the firm of piano makers in 1835. His sons Thomas and Edgar became partners in 1863 when the firm moved it's premises from Windmill Street to Wigmore Street. By 1900 the company was at the peak of its output with a production of 2000 pianos. After 1908, the company became known as Brinsmead and Cramer which continued until 1967, when the firm was bought out by Kemble and Company.
It is likely that the piano was made prior to 1908, when the firm changed its name, following their partnership with Cramer.
The piano was regulated in June 1933 and was then sold by Brinsmead & Sons to the retail chain Cranes on 9th October of that year.

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