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I was wondering if anyone is familiar with this style of old piano made by Chickering & Sons.

This piano's ebay listing had ended, but there are two other Chickering piano listings that feature similar-looking pianos.

Please take a look:



To me, they are quite "ugly," but very intriguing at the same time. Why would Chickering build such an unconventional instrument?

Yipes, what is that? I've never seen, or heard of, anything like it.

I've never even seen pedals like those before!

Steven

p.s. The bizarre orientation of the third picture reminded me of my grandmother, who grew up in late-Victorian England and was taught to play piano with the bench pulled away at a 45-degree angle. I would be tempted to do that with a piano like this so as to at least remain perpendicular to the tail!

I thought respectable Chickering made beautiful pianos like this one, Liszt's own piano:



(By J.P. Dalbera)

This gives a whole new meaning to Victor Borge's joke about opera singers:

"Isn't it a shame those big, fat opera singers always have to lean on the pianos and bend them?"

Very! Very! interesting,I think

Interesting, its also got plain wire bichords.

Ugly? I like the owl lyre!

That is a very nice example of the famous Cocked Hat model by Chickering. They have a lovely sound. Many Chickerings fall into the strange category.

Sotto voce, I was just wondering, do you know a reason behind pulling the piano bench at a 45-degree angle?

Thank you for all your comments. Maybe I should try (God forbid!) buying one! (Just kidding)

I have no idea! Her only explanation was that that's the way she was taught.

To this day, I don't know if it was a custom of that time and place or simply an idiosyncrasy of her teacher.

Steven

Reminds me of bentside spinets (harpsichords)... The keys were at an angle (about 30º), to get a more uniform pluck point configuration for the action.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinet

It would be nice to see the action of this Chickering.

No tipping on that lyre...

I understand harpsichord players used to sit in that position. Couperin suggested that "One should turn very slightly to the right, the knees not pressed together, with the right foot extended. One must have an air of ease at the harpsichord."

There's a painting by Jan Steen showing this ("The Harpsichord Lesson"):

[img]http://tinyurl.com/59fgnh[/img]

Maybe it was more about looks than technical matters. It doesn't make sense to attempt that on the modern piano playing standard repertoire.

Good grief. Even the piano bench is weird.

Coming back to the Chickering, it appears to be straight strung. I suppose that angling all the strings to the side would have the effect of reducing the length of the piano from front to back (i.e. in the direction perpendicular to the keyboard). How's that for a theory? Unorthodox, but possibly a good idea?

Sort of like happens when the bass strings are overstrung, except in this case there is no overstringing.

The story I was told about the Chickering cocked hat grand was that it was designed to fit into the bay windows in the old apartments on Beacon Hill, and other places around Boston.

Interestingly, I would not have called this piano a cocked hat grand. The cocked hat grand that I have had the pleasure of being involved in rebuilding had a curved spine.

In other words, the piano was a little more "kidney shaped" with no straight side at all.

Sally, can you comment?

Erus, you beat me to it. I think the overall configuration was more for conservation of space (remember that rooms were smaller in earlier times, and economic factors always have some influence in instrument design; consider also the virginal and muselaar instruments as alternatives to the larger "flügel" harpsichords).

Here are two other examples. The first one is available as a kit from Hubbard harpsichords, the second is Dolmetsch "revival" instrument that I have which has a similar geometry.

I will admit, I'd never seen such a structure for a piano, and can't imagine what its advantage is, unless it produces a narrower instrument for some awkward spaces.

If the cocked hat grand is cross-strung, then the long sides is shortened, possibly curved, as Rich said. There is one of those in the Smithsonian. They are based on the bent-side spinet configuration.

I did some googling, and this piano seems to be in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:



Different legs, but almost identical otherwise.

I like that Harpshicord, Palindrome.