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Pianos for the People: From Producerto Consumer in Britain, 18511914

FRANCESCA CARNEVALI

LUCY NEWTON

During the second half of the nineteenth century, British society

experienced a rise in real incomes and a change in its composition,

with the expansion of the middle classes. These two factors led to a

consumer revolution, with a growing, but still segmented, demand

for household goods that could express status and aspiration. At the

same time technological changes and new ways of marketing andselling goods made these goods more affordable. This paper analyzes

these themes and the process of mediation that took place between

producers, retailers, and consumers, by looking at the most cultur-

ally symbolic of nineteenth century consumer goods, the piano.

During the second half of the nineteenth century, British consum-

ers were able to turn their homes into Aladdins caves filled with a

remarkable range of goods: carpets, rugs, linoleum, furniture made

The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the

Business History Conference. All rights reserved. For permissions, please

e-mail: [email protected]

doi:10.1093/es/khs042

Advance Access publication December 19, 2012

FRANCESCA CARNEVALI is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at

the University of Birmingham. Contact information: School of History and

Culture, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands

B13 9UH, UK. E-mail: [email protected].

LUCY NEWTON is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Economic History atthe University of Reading. Contact information: Henley Business School,

University of Reading, Whiteknighhts, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AA, UK.

E-mail: [email protected].

We would like to thank the staff of the Surrey History Centre, Woking; theGuildhall Library, London; the British Newspaper Library, Colindale; HarrodsArchive, London; University of Glasgow Archive, Glasgow; Westminster CityArchives, London; Hackney Archives, London; Victoria & Albert MuseumArchives, London; the Victoria & Albert National Art Library, London; and DrLeigh-Shaw Taylor and the Cambridge Group for the Study of Population andSocial Structure, Cambridge, for their help during the research for this paper. We

also wish to thank the three anonymous referees for putting us right on a numberof points. All remaining mistakes remain ours.

byguestonOctober30,2014

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CARNEVALI AND NEWTON38

of wood and papier-mch, drapes, beds and pianos, toys, toilets

and baths, tiles, brass ornaments in all shapes and sizes, cutlery,

glasses for drinking and stained glass for windows, china and pot-

tery, wallpaper, oilcloth, light fittings, and stuffed animals.1Even a

cursory glance through the mail order catalogues of the time cannot

fail to convey the wealth of objects that the Victorians, and later the

Edwardians, could purchase,2and despite the changes that fashion

dictated to interior decoration during this period, of the items that

provided the bedrock of drawing room furnishing, none could sur-

pass the piano.3

This new world of materiality has been amply illustrated by a rich

literature on the cultural relationship between consumers and the

objects they purchased, or aspired to own.4Much less, however, is

known about the process of mediation that took place between pro-ducer, retailer, and consumer.5There is a gap in our knowledge of

the link between production and selling during this period, when:

few firms or sectors of industry confronted in a systematic fashion

the troublesome gap between what they produced and what people

wanted. From the late nineteenth century until the Second World

War, the process of mediating the consumption junction6 was still

loose and open ended.7

Although most of these goods were not new,8 what marked the

period that followed the Great Exhibition of 1851 was their growing

1. While it is unlikely that all these goods would find their way into all homes,contemporary photographs are visual testament to the love for ornamentation ofthe late Victorians. A fine selection of these photographs can be found in Cohen,Household Gods: The British and Their Possessions.

2. Army & Navy, Yesterdays Shopping [The Army & Navy Co-Operative Society1907 issue of Rules of the Society and Price List of Articles Sold at the Stores].

3. Jennings, Our Homes and How to Beautify Them, 183.4. See, for example, Benson, The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain, 1880

1980; Cohen, Household Gods; Cohen, A Consumers Republic. The Politicsof Mass Consumption; Hilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain. TheSearch for a Historical Movement; Hilton, Smoking in British Popular Culture.

5. An exception is the work of Oldenziel and de la Bruhze, eds, ManufacturingTechnology, Manufacturing Consumers.

6. The consumption junction is defined as the place and time at which theconsumer makes choices between competing technologies, quoted in Oldenzieland de la Bruhze, eds, Manufacturing Technology, 19.

7. The twentieth century saw much more systematic mediation of the consump-tion junction than occurred in the nineteenth century. This took place throughconsumer organizations (e.g., those defending consumer rights), governments (e.g.,legislating to protect consumers), and political organizations. Given the newnessof consumer society in the nineteenth century, mediation through such organiza-tions had yet to develop in the way that they did in the twentieth century. SeeBenson, The Rise of Consumer Society in Britain; de Grazia, Irresistible Empire:Americas Advance; Hilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain; Oldenziel

and de la Bruhze, eds, Manufacturing Technology.8. Berg, Consumption and Consumers; Berg, From Imitation to Invention.



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Pianos for the People 39

availability. As these goods became more affordable, more people

could purchase them, while at the same time, the producers of house-

hold goods required a strong awareness of the market and of custom-

ers desires, to compete successfully and survive. The combination

of a growing, but still very segmented market, and of increasing com-

petition meant that manufacturers had to innovate in terms of pro-

duction, marketing, and selling. Typically, the technologies used to

make these goods tended to be established by 1850; but neverthe-

less between this date and 1914, these products underwent small but

significant alterations in technology, which modified them to suit

a variety of tastes.9Meanwhile the new department stores, and the

development of hire purchase, meant that consumers and manufac-

turers faced new opportunities and challenges.

In this essay we examine the production, marketing, and sell-ing of the piano, to explore the connection between production and

consumption. Of all the goods found in the Victorians homes, none

equalled the piano as a carrier of multiple meanings. It was an object

that provided entertainment and decoration, being both a musical

instrument and a substantial piece of furniture. Its ownership con-

ferred status, symbolic as it was of gentility, family life, taste, and

wealth.10As such it was rich in cultural meaning, in the same way

as the grandfather clock of the eighteenth century and the table radio

of the twentieth were. For the business historian, the production

and consumption of the piano is a perfect opportunity to explore theways that manufacturers found to interpret and shape the complex-

ity of consumers desires and how this understanding translated in

the combination of skills, technologies, and sales devices needed to

expand production.

Firstly we analyze the context in which pianos were soldthe ris-

ing real incomes of the lower and middle classes in Victorian Britain

and how these meant that more and more families could afford to buy

ready-made clothes, furniture and ornaments, newspapers and books,

pianos, and sheet music.11We then detail the changes in technology

9. The production of household goods, moreover, made up a sizeable pro-portion of Britains total manufacturing output. Data from the 1907 Census ofProduction reveal that the production of these goods accounted for 8 percent ofnet output of total manufacturing. If finished manufactured goods alone are con-sidered, the share of household goods goes up to 12 percent. The numbers aresimilar for employment. These figures are likely to be an underestimate as the1907 Census did not include small establishments, those employing fewer than 10people, and where many of these goods would have been made.

10. Testimony of this can be found in the books that provided advice on how todecorate the home, a genre that became popular after the 1880s. For examples, seeEdis, Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses; Haweis, The Art of Decoration;

Elder-Duncan, The House Beautiful and Useful.11. Briggs, Victorian Things.



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in piano production during the period and examine the size of piano

manufacturing output in the UK. Finally we consider the cultural

significance of pianos and how these were sold and marketed. The

sources used for this article range from individual company archives,

including those of department stores, to trade journals, trade directo-

ries, exhibition reports, and contemporary magazines.

18501914: Rising Incomes, Domestic Consumption, andHomemaking

The sixty-year period following 1850 saw higher incomes per capita

(per year), lower prices and growth in the British economy, resulting

in more employment and more disposable income for the middle andworking classes. The economy grew faster in the second half of the

nineteenth century, compared to the first half, with a higher propor-

tion of GDP devoted to capital accumulation, and higher levels of

investment in human capital through the provision of education.12

For much of this period, prices fell and per capital real income grew

annually by about 2.1 percent from 1860 to 1895 and 0.5 percent from

1895 to 1913. Although these numbers look small, they were high by

historical standards and represent the cumulative trend of over fifty

years.13Real wages also increased significantly, although not at the

same rate for middle- and working-class families, thanks to the com-bined effect of rising money wages and falling prices.

By the end of the century, the increase in wages was the result of a

combination of two factors: a structural shift towards higher earning

occupations and wage bargaining for those workers who remained in

the same occupation.14Food prices declined faster than the overall

cost of living and, following the building boom at the turn of the cen-

tury, house prices and rents also dropped.15Overcrowding diminished

as workers moved from city centres to suburbs. As wages increased,

so did salaries, together with the growth of a lower middle class of

clerks, schoolteachers, shopkeepers, and technicians, and the propor-

tion of white collar workers in the labor force increased from about

3 percent in 1861 to almost 7 percent in 1911.16At the same time,

12. Crafts, Long-run Growth, 6.13. Supple, Income and Demand, 18601914, 123.14. Feinstein, What Really Happened to Real Wages? Trends in Wages, Prices

and Productivity in the United Kingdom, 18801913; Feinstein, New Estimatesof Average Earnings in the United Kingdom, 18801913.

15. Boyer, Living Standards, 18601939, 312, quoting Feinstein, Variety

and Volatility: Some Aspects of the Labour Market in Britain, 18801913, 17071.16. Crossick, The Lower Middle Class in Britain18701914, 19.



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salaries grew as a proportion of total incomes from 6.5 percent in

1860 to almost 11 percent on the eve of the First World War. One

measure of the number and incomes of those who did not earn wages,

but rather salaries, and were of modest means is provided by data on

those with intermediate incomes of around 160 (the lower limit

for income tax liability). Those in this earning bracket rose from 11.5

percent of total incomes in 1880 to 17 percent in 1913.17It was this

group who looked to emulate the established wealthy in society,

as they benefited from greater disposable incomes and more leisure

time.18It is to these years that we can date the rise of a new literary

genre, the decorators manual, written to help middle-class house-

wives of modest means (those with incomes of about 200 a year,

according to the writers of these manuals) navigate the murky waters

of tasteful interior decoration.19

Living standards did not improve for all, and regional and occupa-

tional variations persisted, with unemployment fluctuating over the

period. What is significant in terms of consumption is that average

and total incomes increased over this period for the families of wage

and salary earners, as noted by a contemporary observer, Sir Charles

Wentworth Dilke, in 1885:

Unstinted food, clothes of the same pattern as the middle class,

when house rents permits, a tidy parlour, with stiff, cheap furniture

which, if not itself luxurious or beautiful, is a symptom of the luxuryof self-respect, and an earnest of better things to come, a newspaper,

a club, an occasional holiday, perhaps a musical instrument.20

Nevertheless, expenditure on manufactured goods as a pro-

portion of income remained stable and there was no shift towards

new commodities: as late as 1910, over 50 percent of purchases

of goods and services was on perishable commodities, 9.5 percent

on semi-durables, and only 4.9 percent of durables, including furni-

ture and furnishings.21However, the growth of working- and middle-

class incomes was great enough to establish a market for goods thathad previously been so limited as to make them rare luxuries. Supple

gives examples of standardized production based on a small propor-

tion of a large aggregate income: bicycles, sewing machines, news-

papers, clocks and watches, wallpaper, pianos, and window glass.

17. Supple, Income and Demand, 124.18. Daunton, Wealth and Welfare: An Economic and Social History of Britain

18511951, 384.19. See, for example, Gardiner, Furnishing and Fittings for Every Home.20. Quoted in Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire. From 1750 to the Present

Day, 161.21. Supple, Income and Demand, 137.



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Even the poorer households, though they continued to allocate the

same proportion of income to non-food expenditure, channelled their

increased purchasing power towards better quality or more modern

versions of traditional purchases, such as improved types of linoleum

floor-covering, arm chairs instead of kitchen chairs, and so on. This is

what Supple calls an enhancement of traditional living standards,

which in turn brought an enlargement of traditional ways of making

things, through the accumulation of marginal changes.22

Urban growth in the second half of the nineteenth century was

the necessary backdrop to the development of both production and

consumption. Towns and cities developed as the loci of industry

and attracted workers who themselves became the customers at new

kinds of retail outlets. The spread of corner shops, the new depart-

ment stores, the penny bazaars, the new shopping arcades, and theco-operative emporia gave the skilled working classes and middle

classes places to spend their money.23 Working-class and middle-

class suburbs developed in the 1880s and 1890s, thanks also to the

passage of the Cheap Trains Act in 1883.24Given this process of sub-

urbanisation, middle-class aspirations increasingly found an outlet in

the growing range of housing on offer from the mid-nineteenth cen-

tury.25The middle classes ceased to live over the shop and moved

to the new suburbs like Edgbaston in Birmingham and Victoria Park

in Manchester.26Middle-class suburban areas, like the eight miles of

houses between London Bridge and Hampton Court, were populatedby households that needed the paraphernalia of gentility, and this

included cultural capital in the shape of libraries, pictures, solid fur-

niture, and musical instruments, such as the piano.27

Far from being a homogeneous group, the middle class was made of

many constituent parts, ranging from the small masters and retailers that

made up thepetite bourgeoisie28to white-collar employees, industrial-

ists, and professionals, fragmented into layer upon layer of subclasses,

keenly aware of their subtle grades of distinction.29Housing, as well

as work, reflected the stratification of the middle class, with a variety of

urban dwellings on offer. Lower-middle-class families would typically

reside in a terraced house, with one reception room, while middle-mid-

dle-class ones would occupy a semi-detached house, with a drawing

22. Ibid; 13743.23. Walton, Towns and Consumerism, 71544.24. Boyer, Living Standards, 18601939, 313; Trainor, The Middle Class, 694.25. Thompson, The Rise of Suburbia.26. Simpson, Michael, and Taylor, eds, Middle Class Housing in Britain.27. Banks, Prosperity and Parenthood, chapter 6.28. Crossick, Haupt, The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe 17801914.

29. Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of VictorianBritain 18301900, 173.



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room and a dining room, and upper-middle-class families would favor

detached houses that might include a music room or library. Apart from

housing, among the markers of social status, nothing compared with the

ownership of durable consumer goods, especially as at this time home

ownership was still restricted to few, and renting was more common.

From the 1870s onwards, more and more families were able to afford

ready-made furniture and ornaments, or pianos and sheet music30; and

by the early part of the twentieth century, pianos could be found in the

parlours of those workers in stable employment.31As the Piano, Organ

and Music Trades Journalobserved in 1900: People who buy pianos

in this age of enlightenment embrace all well-ordered households. It is

no longer a sign of wealth that a handsome piano adorns the home.32

The drawing room and, for the less well off, the parlor were the

public rooms of the Victorian home where household goods weredisplayed as symbols of achievement and worldly success.33Of these

goods, none was more symbolic of social mobility than the piano, con-

sidered by those two contemporary arbiters of elegance, Mrs Panton

and Mrs Haweis, as a drawing room essential.34As a symbol of gentil-

ity, the piano could not be bettered; even the Pooters, characters in

the comic novel Diary of a Nobodypublished in 1892, owned a never-

played piano, an upright cottage model, bought on hire purchase.35As

a symbol of salvation, both social and personal, the piano is imagined

by Flory, in George Orwells Burmese Days, in a future marital home:

He saw his home as she would remake it. He saw his drawing-

room, sluttish and bachelor-like no longer, with new furniture from

Rangoon, and a bowl of pink balsams like rosebuds on the table,

and books and watercolours and a black piano. Above all the piano!

His mind lingered on the piano - symbol, perhaps because he was

unmusical, of civilized and settled life. He was delivered for ever

from the sub-life of the past decade - the debaucheries, the lies, the

30. Briggs, Victorian Things.31. See Clementina Blacks recording of the lives of Liverpool vestmakers, in

Married Womens Work, quoted in Walton, Towns and Consumerism, 18401850.32. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 219, Nov. 1900, vol. XVII (new

series no. 186), 854.33. Flanders, The Victorian House, xxix.34. Mrs Haweis was a regular contributor to the The Ladys Realm, and her

books included The Art of Beauty (1878), The Art of Dress (1879), The Art ofDecoration(1881), Beautiful Houses: Being a Description of Certain Well-knownArtistic Houses (1882), Rus in Urbe: or Flowers that Thrive in London Gardensand Smoky Towns(1886), and The Art of Housekeeping: A Bridal Garland(1889),while Mrs Pantons advice manuals intended for those with modest incomes(about 200 a year) included Homes of Taste: Economical Hints(1890).

35. Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody, 14, quoted in Flanders, The VictorianHouse, 139.



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pain of exile and solitude, the dealings with whores and money

lenders and pukka sahibs.36

Pianos also became family heirlooms, as this symbol of social sta-

tus was passed down to different generations of families, but often to

daughters. The bestowing of pianos to daughters reflected the social

benefits that a piano could bring to a woman, clearly perceived to be

greater than those it could bring to a man.37For example, in 1872,

Samuel Banks, a farmer from Cromwell in Nottinghamshire, set out in

his will which possessions were to be left to his childrenTo daugh-

ter Ann Margaret Banks, the pianoforte, while the sons received

cash.38In 1891 the innkeeper Mary Wilson of Walsall left her daugh-

ter Clara her pianoforte,39while ten years later, Benjamin Bibby, a

gentleman from Muncaster, Cumberland, left his five children gener-ous trusts for life but to his only daughter he left her fathers piano-

forte and music books.40Pianos as musical instruments and essential

items of furniture were important possessions for a woman, both as a

symbol of (real or assumed) accomplishment and of homemaking, as

the presence of the piano in the drawing room turned it into a fam-

ily sitting room, where all the members of the family would come

together to share in the musical entertainment.41The bequeathing of a

piano to a daughter also provided her with a material good that could

be pawned if necessary.42

The importance of middle-class women as consumers in the nine-teenth century has been emphasized in work by Rappaport,43while

working-class female consumers have also been considered by a

number of other authors. This work clearly demonstrates that sec-

tions of the British working class could not afford pianos, even after

a decline in their prices. For the working classes, second-hand goods,

36. Orwell, Burmese Days.37. The ability to play the piano was seen to be advantageous to a young woman

who was in search of a husband. Burgan, Heroines at the Piano: Women andMusic in Nineteenth-Century Fiction; Loesser, Men, Women, and Pianos: A SocialHistory; Lustig, The Pianos Progress: The Piano in Play in the Victorian Novel.

38. Will and probate of Samuel Banks of Cromwell, farmer, DD/T/118/4, 1872,1873, Nottinghamshire Archives, Nottingham.

39. Will of Mary Wilson, 48/12/14, 18801881, Walsall Local History Centre.40. Copy of probate of will, BD TB 42/2/1, 1892, Cumbria Record Office,

Barrow.41. Gardiner, Furnishing and Fittings for Every Home, 85; Elder-Duncan, The

House Beautiful, 149.42. This point is made in the context of American working-class families in

Porter-Benson, What Goes Round Comes Round: Secondhand Clothing, Furniture,and Tools in Working-class Lives in the Interwar United States.

43. Rappaport, Shopping for Pleasure. Women in the Making of Londons West

End. For US, see Porter-Benson, Counter Cultures. Saleswomen, Managers andCustomers in American Department Stores, 18901940.



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as well as sharing, were important factors in their consumption pat-

terns and behavior.44

Over time, the multiple meanings of the piano as an object may not

have changed, as it remained a symbol of respectability, homemaking,

taste, and accomplishment. Yet the means by which it was purchased,

and the types of people that it was purchased by, did change between

1851 and 1914. The piano could not have become an affordable sta-

tus object for middle- and upper-working-class families without the

changes that took place in its production, marketing, and retail after

the 1860s. To meet this rising demand for pianos, it is necessary to

consider first the manufacture of these symbolic consumer goods.

The Production of Pianos: The Size and Structure of the UK

Piano Manufacturing Industry

The period from 1850 to 1914 was a golden era for piano produc-

tion. The global production of pianos rose from 43,000 in 1850 to

600,000 in 1910, with UK production increasing from 23,000 in 1850

to 75,000 in 1910. The main producers of pianos during this period

were Britain, France, Germany, and the US.45 Output growth was

stimulated by increased demand over the period and facilitated by

changes in production and technology.46

Broadwood & Sons (established in 1808 and one of Londons larg-

est employers) produced between 7 and 10 percent of UK pianos.47In this respect, they represented the exception in piano production,

which was dominated by numerous small firms.48A survey of Kellys

trade directories for London reveals 178 entries under pianoforte

44. See the work of Ross including Survival Networks: WomensNeighbourhood Sharing in London before World War I, in which she consid-ers the working poor. For the US, see Porter-Benson, Working-class FamilyEconomies in the Inter-war United States.

45. Piano production in France increased from 10,000 in 1850 to 25,000 in

1910; in the US, production increased from 10,000 to 370,000 between the samedates; and in Germany, production increased from approximately 15,000 in 1870to approximately 120,000 in 1910. Ehrlich, The Piano: A History, 222.

46. There are no entirely reliable output data on piano production. The figuresquoted in the paper are from Ehrlichs but they are contradicted by other sources,such as in 1900 the Evening Standard estimated that 170 factories in Londonalone were making pianos and that they turned out 90,000 pianos every year. SeePiano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, Feb. 1900, no. 210, vol. xvii (new seriesno. 178), 647.

47. Wainwright, Broadwood, Henry Fowler (18111893), Piano Manufacturer,45859.

48. It may be expected that large firms tend to be mass producers of lower-quality goods. Yet in the case of pianos, large firms were also the high-end, qual-

ity producers. The same was true in the pottery industry; see Popp, BusinessStructure, Business Culture and the Industrial District.



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makers in 1851. The number of piano makers in London thereafter

remained stable until 1914 at around 200, mostly small-scale enter-

prises.49Indeed the structure of the UK piano industry remained sim-

ilar throughout the period and comprised of three groups: established

firms (often large) making high-quality pianos (such as Broadwood,

Collard, Kirkham), medium-sized and medium-class producers (such

as Allison, Brinsmead, Challen, Chappell, Cramer, and Daneman), and

200 or so small producers, making pianos on their own or employ-

ing just a few people. There was a high entry and exit rate amongst

small piano makers. They were badly hit by any recession, but new

entrants, often headed by workers once employed in existing facto-

ries, were ready to risk establishing a piano-making enterprise on

their own due to the potential profits that could be made. Moreover,

from the 1870s, the larger producers would contract out their work tosuch smaller makers.50

Although entry and exit rates were high, survival rates were

good and worth the risk given the chances of survival and poten-

tial profits that could be made. From a survey of over 327 piano

firms by Ehrlich taken from 1850 onwards, 17 percent lasted from

1 to 10 years, 26 percent lasted from 11 to 20 years, 18 percent

from 21 to 30 years, 12 percent from 31 to 40 years, and 10 percent

from 41 to 50 years. There would have been some very small scale

producers that went in and out of business very quickly, which

may have been omitted from this survey as its starting point isthose firms that lasted at least a year, but the survival rates from

this sample look relatively healthy, given the poor survival rates

of modern small firms. There were also some very healthy excep-

tionsBroadwoods lasted over 200 and Brinsmeads survived over

100 yearsbut most firms did not live for so long.51

From the 1850s, Broadwood manufactured pianos under one roof

in its Horseferry Road factory, but this was unusual. Most workers

were not employed directly by a small- or medium-sized piano-mak-

ing firm but operated in the many stages of piano manufacture on

a casual basis, paid by the piece.52Only a few core workers were

on the payroll of larger firms. Many factory hands were laid off in

49. Kellys Post Office Directory of London. Directories were surveyed between1851 and 1914. The directory only clearly differentiates which firms were operat-ing as dealers only in the 1914 directory, when 44 dealers are included in the listof entries. This still left 212 enterprises that were solely makers of pianofortes.

50. Ehrlich, The Piano, 14345.51. Figures generated from the list in Appendix 1, Ehrlich, The Piano,

20321.

52. An order book from Kemble & Co. demonstrates the variety of processesin piano production. See Piano Book, Kemble & Co., Hackney Archives, London.



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summer and autumn when trade was slack.53Piano making served

a seasonal market, with low sales in summer and higher sales in

winter (for Christmas) and spring (for weddings).54Thus some work-

shops made cabinets, desks, or even coffins when pianos were not in

demand.55Small- and medium-sized firms could construct the piano

partly from materials and partly from components that had alreadybeen processed, such as keys and backs. The plethora of piano com-

ponent makers, testifying to the existence of a production system of

flexible specialisation, can be seen from the listings in trade direc-

tories advertising, for example, for piano pedal makers, piano key

makers, piano cabinet makers and inlayers, and piano string mak-

ers. Table 1shows the numbers of people working in piano making

and the making of piano parts in 18814,130 in totaland the 297

individuals who were described as piano sellers or dealers. These

are national figures, though the majority was located in London. This

demonstrates the considerable number of people working in piano

production in late nineteenth century, although the number would

fluctuate with both the seasons and economic cycles.

Table 1 Occupation in 1881 Census

Piano and Piano Part Makers

Piano makers 2725

Piano makingparts 553Piano making processes 466Piano makersmanagers 7Piano makersforeman 9Piano makersworkers 198Piano makersapprentices 105Piano makersassistants 23Piano tuner + makers 28Piano makers + other wooden furniture 16

4130Piano Sellers and DealersSelling 39

Dealers 258297

Source: 1881 Population Census. Figures provided by the Cambridge Group for the Study ofPopulation and Social Structure.

53. The annual summer exodus of piano makers to hop gardens of Kent contin-ued into 1930s. Laurence, The Evolution of the Grand Piano, 17851998, 6774,80, 93.

54. Radio production and sales in the twentieth century was also seasonal.Scott, The Determinants of Competitive Success in the Interwar British RadioIndustry.

55. This is made clear from the occupations provided in the 1881 PopulationCensus; for example, pianoforte and cabinet maker.



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The centre for UK piano producers in the nineteenth century was

London. There were some small piano makers outside the capital,

but Pohlmann & Sons in Halifax was the only firm of significant

size, employing only 40 people by 1890.56Piano production formed

clusters in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, notably

in Soho, central London. This had the advantage of access, via the

Thames River, to coastal shippingan important means by which

domestic freight was moved during the nineteenth century. In time,

makers moved further north into Camden Town and Kentish Town,

where rents were cheaper and more space was available. Camden

Town also offered easy access to the Regents Canal, which could be

used for transportation of heavy goods like pianos, either to the west

and therefore onto the whole canal system for domestic markets, or

east to the docks and from there to global markets. Camden Townand Kentish Town also lay near the railheads of Kings Cross, Euston,

and St Pancras.57Such clustering allowed access to a pool of skilled

labor, and a London location gave easier access to materials but, most

importantly, was originated due to the dominance of demand from

the countrys capital.

Once such a cluster formed, it was perpetuated by the clustering

of makers of piano parts: key makers; pin makers; sellers of key leads;

hammer coverers; piano hammer and damper cloth makers; incisors,

who cut the fretted wooden fronts; truss carvers; gilders; marquetry

workers; French polishers, veneer, timber, and ivory suppliers; mak-ers of castors; and candle-sconces and piano-backs. All were essential

suppliers to the main piano fabricators. Many also supplied elements

that differentiated pianos, both in terms of prices and in terms of

appearance, catering for different tastes in ornamentation. Given the

emblematic nature of this product, many consumers desired a piano

that was not standardized but differentiated from the instrument of

a neighbour in terms of fretwork, wood, and candle-holders. Such

demand for changes in style stimulated consumption as the more

wealthy were able to exchange an existing piano for an improved

or more fashionable, newer model. Distinctive types of piano also

catered for different demands. The grand piano was the largest and

most expensive, usually used by concert pianists and/or the wealthy.

The boudoir grand was smaller (and more affordable). Yet smaller

and less expensive was the baby grand, under 5 feet in length and a

foot shorter than the boudoir grand. Square pianos were shaped like a

clavichord (they were rectangular) and proved popular in the first half

56. Pohlmann and Sons, Halifax, piano manufacturers, West Yorkshire Archive

Service.57. Howkins, Made in St Pancras: British Pianos and Their Story.



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of the nineteenth century in the UK, offering a cheaper alternative to

the various grands. Upright pianos contained the mechanisms of the

instrument in a vertical cabinet, as opposed to the grand, which was

laid out horizontally, and therefore took up less space. Those instru-

ments described as cottage were necessarily smaller and meant for

more modest homes.58

All the main technological changes to the piano had taken place

before 1860. Yet after 1860, many small, incremental changes were

made to this instrument. Individual details of the piano continued

to receive attention, as evidenced by trade journals listing the latest

patents taken out relating to piano manufacturing technology.59Other

innovations were tailored to suit the changing tastes of consumers

and to their requirements in terms of cost differentiation (cheaper

pianos meant more people could afford to buy one) and space con-straints (smaller pianos meant that the instrument could fit in the

parlor of an ordinary house).

There were also technological changes in piano production. In

1860, piano manufacture was still a craft-based industry, which

did not enjoy economies of scale and employed little machinery.60

A Broadwood grand could pass through the hands of 40 different

workmen.61Costs tended to be high and productivity low. As a result,

turnover was modest, but large profit margins could be achieved as

retail prices were relatively high.62In addition to its lack of machin-

ery, the industry was also characterized by a lack of standardisationin production. A large firm would produce a range of different types

of piano and even smaller firms could differentiate their finished

products in terms of ornamentation or type of wood. A contemporary

estimated that Broadwood could only produce about seven pianos

per workman per annum, little different from the productivity of a

small rival.63

However, between 1860 and 1914, the number of pianos being

assembled increased substantially, and this was achieved by the

application of technological innovation to the production process.

Germany and the US led the way in producing greater numbers

58. Ehrlich, The Piano, 910, 188.59. For example, The Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, Jan. 1891,

no. 102, vol. VIII, 19.60. For a description of these technological developments, see Ehrlich, The

Piano; Good, Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos: A Technological Historyfrom Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand; Parakilas, Piano Roles: ThreeHundred Years of Life with the Piano; Loesser, Men, Women, and Pianos.

61. Lardner, The Great Exhibition and London in 1851.62. Ehrlich, The Piano, 34.

63. Also, before construction could begin, wood had to be left to season beforeit could be utilized. Ehrlich, The Piano, 3638.



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of pianos more cheaply but of decent quality; and after the 1880s,

imports from these countries into the UK forced British manufactur-

ers to do the same. It was the fragmented structure of the trade that

allowed innovation to take place in UK production. Manufacturers

assembled pre-shaped parts, rather than buying and seasoning wood,

then assembling the piano from scratch. The number of companies

supplying these parts (and supplying them on credit) increased. In

addition, mass production of cast iron frames and mass-produced,

standardized, good-quality actions simplified the production process.

Thus, the system of buying out parts of the piano allowed manu-

facturers to purchase inexpensive components that were also better

than those that could have been produced in their own workshops.

Suppliers could also add the advantage of economies of scale to pro-

duction and price upon sale to purchasers. Mechanisation of produc-tion increased, with the US leading the way as a result of its shortage of

skilled labor and abundance of wood. Machines were introduced, for

example, in wood-working, hammer covering, and winding strings.64

This pattern of production in piano making in the second half of the

nineteenth century in the UKbatch production and production in

clusters resourced by specialist laboris similar to that of the flex-

ible specialisation found in industrial districts of northern Italy by

Piore and Sable and across US by Scranton. It gave Londons piano

makers the ability to adapt quickly to changes in volume and type

of demand.65Such improvements made in manufacturing processesallowed greater numbers of pianos to be produced more cheaply and

for more consumers to buy a piano. This leads us to consider how the

piano was taken to market.

Marketing and Advertising Pianos

As well as the production of the piano, it is crucial to examine the

way in which this emblematic musical instrument was marketed,

including the use of advertising. Manufacturers and retailers used the

symbolic meaning of a piano in the home in marketing and advertis-

ing this product. Consumption did not occur in a vacuum: products

[are] integral threads in the fabric of social life.66The piano helped

to communicate an image and thus was often purchased for its social

64. Ehrlich, The Piano, 81; Good, Giraffes,199, 21113, 230.65. Flexible specialization; see Piore and Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide;

Scranton, Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization,18651925.

66. Solomon, The Role of Products as Social Stimuli: A Symbolic InteractionismPerspective, 319.



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meaning. This corresponds with the idea that people are evalu-

ated and placed in their social nexus to a significant degree by the

products which surround them.67Piano marketing tended to reflect

the many meanings of this productthose buying one, while they

might have wished to know its technical qualities, also wanted to be

reminded that it inferred social standing and respectability, that it

conferred status to its household. In this way, it was not so much the

purchase of the product that was important but what the consumer

gained from the product once it had been purchased. Moreover, it

was especially important to communicate social placement through

possessions when movement up the social scale occurred. Such

social mobility was a common experience in the late Victorian and

early Edwardian era.68This projection of image is clearly evident in

Laurences Women in Love, set before the First World War:

Dont you think the colliers pianoforteis a symbol for something

very real, a real desire for something higher, in the colliers life?.

Yes. Amazing heights of upright grandeur. It makes him so much

higher in his neighbouring colliers eyes. He sees himself reflected

in the neighbouring opinionseveral feet taller on the strength of

the pianoforte, and he is satisfied.69

The importance of the social meanings of the piano was under-

stood by those who made and marketed them. Manufacturers andsellers used brand and reputation to tap into the importance of

social status and aspiration for many nineteenth-century consumers.

Although manufacturers in general did rely on brand building, the

importance of brand recognition was particularly high for high-cost,

durable good such as a piano.70Clearly, the more expensive pianos

were those high-quality brands, such as Broadwood, and customers

67. Ibid; 326.68. This not only applied to the UK market. In US, a thriving market for pianos

was stimulated by prosperity and a desire for home music and social emulationwhich was at least as powerful as in Victorian England. In France, the market,and consequently production, was smaller with the piano remaining a bourgeoisinstrument purchased to show wealth. In Germany, the home and export marketwas helped via the prestige of German music which attached itself to the coun-trys pianos. Ehrlich, The Piano, 128, 125, 71.

69. Lawrence, Women in Love, 59, quoted in Ehrlich, The Piano, 107.70. For the historical development of branding and marketing consumer goods,

see Church, New Perspectives on the History of Products, Firms, Marketing, andConsumers in Britain and the United States since the Mid-nineteenth Century;Church, The Origins of Competitive Advantage in the Marketing of BrandedPackaged Goods: Colmans and Reckitts in Victorian Britain; Church and Clark,Product Development of Branded, Packaged Household Goods in Britain, 1870

1914: Colmans, Reckitts, and Lever Brothers; Church, Advertising ConsumerGoods in Nineteenth-century Britain: Reinterpretations.



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often used price as a proxy for quality.71But price was not the only

indicator of quality. Exhibitions were widely used in the marketing

of pianosthey informed dealers about which brands and models

were new and of interest to customers, as well as reaching the paying

public directly.72Medals won at such events were used in develop-

ing brand reputations. The headed letter paper of Barratt & Robinson,

London pianoforte manufacturers established in 1877, listed the med-

als the firm had won at eight exhibitions between 1878 and 1920.73

Broadwood referred in its promotional material to its gold medals

from the Paris Exhibition in 1867 and the International Inventors

Exhibition in London in 1885.74These firms also emphasized their

longevity as a means to enhance their reputations.

At the Great Exhibition of 1851, manufacturers were not permitted

to sell goods from the stands at which they displayed their instru-ments; therefore, prices were not usually printed in the exhibition

catalogues. Thus exhibitions were valuable for promoting and devel-

oping brand reputation rather than for direct selling.75 Huge audi-

ences viewed pianos at the major nineteenth-century exhibitions,

generating public interest in these instruments and their manufac-

ture. Reviewers extended this publicity by writing about the instru-

ments exhibited. For example, a review of Collard & Collards pianos

commented upon them as very superior instruments of their particu-

lar class, at prices so low as to be in reach of very numerous class of

purchasers who might otherwise be driven to alternative buying ofinferior instruments.76

Exhibitions continued into the twentieth century. Lord Northcliffe

founded The Daily MailIdeal Home exhibition in 1908; it was held

at Londons Olympia centre. The public were entertained and edu-

cated for an entrance fee of 1 shilling, but the founder also intended

to stimulate contemporary debate about better housing conditions.77

Prices were not included in the catalogues as there was no direct sell-

ing. The exhibitions catalogues provided a visual, spatial context

71. Herrmann, Huber, Shao, and Bao, Building Brand Equity via ProductQuality, 5323, and Brucks, Zeithaml, and Naylor, Price and Brand Name asIndicators of Quality Dimensions for Consumer Durables, 363.

72. For a discussion of exhibitions in general, see Walton, France at the CrystalPalace: Bourgeois Taste and Artisan Manufacture in the Nineteenth Century.

73. Headed letter paper of Barratt & Robinson, pianoforte manufacturers,2622/3/8. Westminster City Archives, London.

74. Exhibitions, 18511952, 2185/JB/84/122. Archive of John Broadwood andSons, Surrey History Centre.

75. Mactaggart, Musical Instruments in the 1851 Exhibition, 11.76. Ibid; 23.

77. Contents of the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition archive. The Victoria &Albert Archive Art and Design, London.



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for pianosthe home and how it was furnished.78Unlike the trade

press adverts, these catalogues showed pianos in their social setting.

Homes were also constructed in the exhibition village. Pianos

represented in middle-class drawing rooms were also displayed in

mail order catalogues and department store brochures. Displaying the

piano within a home (at an exhibition or on the page) took the market-

ing of pianos a step further. No longer were these instruments seen

in isolation and sold as objects; now the public could envision them

in idealized domestic spaces, a setting which buyers could imagine

reproducing. This enhanced the desirability of this product, not just

as a musical object but also as part of a lifestyle package.

Prestige and quality were concepts that manufacturers sought

to convey, and established brand names became shorthand for

such attributes. This was especially important for a product withwhich the consumer was relatively unfamiliar, for a brand name

could simplify the consumers judgement task when purchasing

a piano.79 In 1911 Alfred Dolge wrote that One of the remark-

able peculiarities of the piano industry is the great value of an

established name. He noted that the reputation of the instrument

which a piano maker produces follows him beyond his grave, often

for generations.80

Endorsements from specific buyers and users of the pianos rein-

forced prestige and brand reputation. Members of royal clans pur-

chased pianos made by British manufacturers. At the 1910 IdealHome Exhibition, Challen & Sons advertized that they had recently

supplied the King of Portugal.81Meanwhile John Broadwood & Sons

current website proudly lists the members of the British royal family

(seven kings and three queens) for whom the firm has manufactured

pianos, demonstrating the continued value that Royal endorsements

can bring.82Association with famous figures also added an element of

prestige to a brand. In the late nineteenth century, Broadwood commis-

sioned heralded artists, such as William Morris and Edwin Lutyens,

to decorate or design some of their pianos. John Broadwood & Sons

in 1873 made an upright piano to the design and specification of the

Dutch painter, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, for use in his family house

overlooking Regents Park (see figure 1). Other decorative pianos were

78. AAD/1990/9/1, 2, 3. The Victoria & Albert Archive of Art and Design,London.

79. Brucks, Zeithaml, and Naylor, Price and Brand Name as Indicators ofQuality Dimensions, 36465.

80. Dolge, Pianos and their Makers, 213, 214.81. AAD/1990/9/1, p. 97 and p. 50. The Victoria & Albert Archive of Art and

Design, London.82. http://www.piano-tuners.org/broadwood/.



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sold to celebrated individuals such as Arthur Conan Doyle and SirHenry Irving.83

Endorsements by musicians and composers were frequently used

to enhance a brand. Broadwood gave a piano to Beethoven in 1817,84

and the firm also supplied pianos to Chopin and Mendelssohn.85

The company repeatedly used Beethovens endorsement through

his playing of this instrument, for example, in the House of Music

sponsored by Broadwoods in the Tudor Village at the 1910 Ideal

Home Exhibition. Connection with such famous names extended the

reputation of Broadwood and the desirability of its pianos.

Contemporary branding research recognizes word-of-mouth andcustomer experience as being of value86and so it was in the nineteenth

century. In 1872 the professional pianist Arabella Goddard wrote to

8 3 . h t t p : / / w w w . s u r r e y c c . g o v . u k / s c c w e b s i t e / s c c w s p a g e s . n s f /LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/John+Broadwood+and+Sons+Piano+Manufacturers?opendocument.

84. Ibid.85. Wainwright, Broadwood, Henry Fowler (18111893), Piano Manufacturer,

45859.

86. Herrmann, Huber, Shao, and Bao, Building Brand Equity via ProductQuality, 533.

Figure 1 John Broadwood & Sons, designed by Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1873.



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Charlotte Owles, recommending the purchase of a Broadwood piano,

as they last longer than any other, & even Broadwoods later Pianos

are much better than the other makers.87Dolge includes a chapter on

testimonials from pianists, stressing their importance.88Testimonials

from the ordinary happy customers were useful, as a popular trade

journal opined:

The Englishman, maker and buyer, believes in testimonials; rightly

to, I think, FOR THE ENGLISH PUBLIC IS NOT FICKLE, and

once a favourite here, always a favourite, even though the favour-

ite is past his time. The value of a favourites testimonial is worth

considering.89

Marketing also depended on the target consumer. In the 1850s at

Broadwood, Henry Fowler dropped the name cottage grand as he

viewed it as too down-market. The firm was targeting those who

lived in Chelsea, Bayswater, and Paddington, not occupying cottages

but rather homes in central, urban London. Instead names such as

Royal Boudoir Grand, Drawing Room Grand, the Superior Drawing

Room Grand, and the Concert Iron Grand were employed.90 Such

titles clearly attempted to indicate that the product was far less hum-

ble than an instrument intended for a cottage. These were still com-

pact pianos, intended for those small houses where the drawing room

was the only space set apart for receptions and family life; yet inchoosing new names for them, Broadwood attributed to its custom-

ers a rather robust self-image. This also demonstrates that the firm

targeted the middle-class market.

Indeed, different types of promotional strategies were available

to market pianos than were available to manufacturers of other con-

sumer durables. Pianos had an artistic function in that they could

be animated by musicians, both professional and amateur; they

also offered a form of entertainment to be used at social functions.

Moreover, it must be remembered that while the musical properties

87. Letter from Arabella Goddard, 5 March 1872, 0988/118. Westminster CityArchives, London.

88. Dolge, Pianos and their Makers, part 4, chapter 2.89. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 216, Aug. 1900, vol. XVII (new

series no. 183), 791. [Caps in original] No evidence of testimonials from custom-ers has been found in the advertising of pianos in the trade press, in departmentstore catalogues, or in advertisements in other publications. In contrast, the prac-tice was used in selling pianos in the US. See the 1905 Sears catalogue in Cohn,Good Old Days: History of American Morals and Manner Sears Roebuck Catalog,89. See also Moskowitz and Schweitzer, Testimonial Advertising in the American

Marketplace: Emulation, Identity, Community.90. Laurence, The Evolution of the Grand Piano, 89.



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of the instrument are of primary importance, the piano fills the dual

position of musical instrument and house ornament.91The catalogue

of the 1851 Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace stated that the piano

was almost an orchestra in itself but also due to its adaptation to

all purposes of musical representation, its universal use in every fam-

ily as an indispensable requisite for amusement and instruction.92

Given its artistic nature, piano marketing through recitals and

concerts made sense. An article in the Piano, Organ and Music Trades

Journalstated that manufacturers were firmly convinced of the value

of concert work as a means of pushing pianos, and most of the leading

houses have salons, where recitals and concerts of greater or less[er]

pretensions are constantly given.93Harrods held concerts in its piano

department, providing weekly recitals by famous musicians.94These

performances also received reviews in newspapers, which usuallyreferred to the make of piano being played. Broadwood collected

them95and Cramer listed reviews from the music press in its trade cat-

alogue.96Such performances also fuelled the public awareness of and

appetite for the piano, and there were an increasing number of venues

where music played on the piano could be heard by all classes of peo-

ple. Working mens concerts began in Manchester in the 1870s; public

concerts catering to large audiences were held at the Crystal Palace

from 1855; and Bechstein Hall (later Wigmore Hall) opened in 1901.97

All this evidence shows that the piano could be promoted in a vari-

ety of waysthrough testimonials, recommendation of professionals,endorsements by Royalty, exhibition prizes, and concertsbut also

through the development of recognized brands, which communicated

quality and prestige, a process greatly enhanced by advertising.

Contemporary marketers recognized high advertising spending as crit-

ical to brand-building.98More advertising also allowed manufacturers

to shape the development of their brands image, frequently referring

to the quality of the product, history, and repute of the manufac-

turer, including prizes won and royal patrons.

91. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 159, Nov. 1895, vol. XIII (newseries no. 127), 157.

92. 1851 Exhibition, 42. Westminster City Archives, London.93. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 216, Aug. 1900, vol. XVII (new

series no. 183), 771.94. The Harodian Gazette, 3 October 1938.95. Scrapbook, Archive of John Broadwood & Sons, 2185/JB/77/1a, 120.

Surrey History Centre, Woking.96. Cramer & Co trade catalogue, 607, AD 0223, Victoria & Albert Art Library,

London.97. Ehrlich, The Piano, 95.98. The Pianoforte Dealers Guide, no. 2, April 1882, vol. 1, front cover. For the

spending on advertising for other goods in the nineteenth century, see Richards, TheCommodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 18511914.



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communicated with the public to a far greater extent than manufac-

turers. Hence, they could tailor marketing campaigns to exploit suc-

cessfully their knowledge of consumer trends.

Not all manufacturers were forward-thinking about advertising, how-

ever. Henry Fowler, who joined the Broadwoods partnership in 1863,

did not agree that the firm should pay for advertising and believed it to

be unnecessary and vulgar.102Nonetheless, Broadwoods did advertise

its pianos in the trade press and produced its first advertising brochure

in 1895.103By 1900 the firm bought space in a range of newspapers and

periodicals: The Morning Post, Music Trades Review, Musical Courier,

Musical Opinion, Musical Times, Music, Queen, Kellys Directory, The

Philharmonic Society Paper, Society of Musicians Journal, Forsyths

Halle, and Trinity College. They also advertised in The Times.104Such

placements allowed them to reach a broader audience, including mostof the plausible buying public. Both trade and press advertising cost

them 200 per annum in 1900.105Fowlers views were clearly super-

seded by the necessity of maintaining the Broadwood brand in the pub-

lic eye and generating sales via advertising.

Yet the Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journalrealized that adver-

tising by itself was not sufficient to generate business:

If you buy a few inches of advertising space and then sit back in

your chair, and expect trade to flow into your door as a result of your

ad, without following it up with personal work and up-to-datemethods of catalogue announcements, you will be entirely foiled.

Advertising must be given attention all the time. Advertising is

like a plant. With proper care and attention it will grow to mam-

moth proportions, and increase the business of the advertiser.106

This statement acknowledged the need to communicate with the

customer, but also that this should be achieved in an imaginative

manner: It is of no use merely to tell the public that you are to be

found at a certain address, and that you sell pianos and organs.

The thing is to arrest their attention, to interests them by a cleverly-devised and articulately-worded circular.107

102. Catalogue, Archive of John Broadwood & Sons, Surrey History Centre,Woking.

103. John Broadwood & Sons, 2185/JB/78/2, Surrey History Centre, Woking.104. See, for example, Broadwoods advertisement in The Times, Friday, Oct.

23, 1914, p. 10, issue 40674.105. Minutes of John Broadwood & Sons, Board of Directors Minute Books,

2185/JB/4/1. Archive of John Broadwood & Sons, Surrey History Centre, Woking.106. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 211, Mar. 1900, vol. XVII

(new series no. 179), 632.

107. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 151, Mar. 1895, vol. XIII (newseries no. 119), 36.



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The other, more usual type of advertisement that appeared in news-

papers was the classified ad for pianos, which reached an even broader

audiencethose who earned lower incomes. For example, a look at the

classified section of The Morning Postin 1899 reveals several columns

of adverts for pianos.108 Two adverts for pianos appeared a genera-

tion earlier, in The Penny Illustrated Paperin February 1862, between

notices for harmoniums and sewing machines.109These adverts indi-

cated models of instruments and included their full pricesusually

12 or lessor the cost of hire per monthoften 10 shillings. Both new

and second-hand pianos were advertised. Pianos sold via the classified

advertisements were much cheaper than those offered in department

stores, manufacturers showrooms and the outlets of specialist dealers.

The classifieds catered for those who were concerned with achieving

ownership at a low price rather than seeking quality. They reflectedthisno images, just a few plain lines indicating the type and price of

the instrument. This contrasts markedly with the prestige advertis-

ing by companies, such as Broadwoods, but demonstrates that adver-

tising and selling pianos reached toward a variety of end markets.

Marketing, as well as lower prices, thus fuelled the demand for

pianos. The next section considers where people bought pianos, how

much they cost, and what the variations in price were over the period

under consideration.

Retailing the Piano

In 1850, pianos were still expensive, and purchasing one was

beyond the financial means of the majority of the British population.

In 1849, a modest piano from Broadwood & Sons cost from 45 for

a mahogany cottage upright, but one would spend 160 for a rose-

wood grand.110 Instruments produced by less-famous makers were

appreciably cheaper, some selling for as little as about 20.111 Yet

this lower price was still beyond most ordinary consumers reach.

Even by 1881, a full-time cotton worker was only earning 38 per

annum and the average annual wage for all sectors was about 48 per

annum.112A lack of competition maintained high prices during the

108. The Morning Post, 30 Nov. 30, 1899, 1.109. For example, see The Penny Illustrated Paper, 1 Feb. 1862, 80.110. John Broadwood & Sons Archive, wholesale and retail price list, 1849,

2185/JB/76/14, Surrey History Centre. In current prices, 45 would be approxi-mately 2,500 and 160 would be just over 9,000. National Archives currencyconverter, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/. No comparable pricesare available from department stores until later in the century.

111. Ehrlich, The Piano, 40.112. Boyer, Living Standards, 18601939, 286.



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