Finchcocks instrument auction

[MrGongGong]

Some of you might be interested in this?
I've been after a Tibetan telescopic trumpet for a while but fear the one here will be too expensive
but some wonderful instruments in this (rather sad) sale

http://www.dreweatts.com/cms/pages/auction/13949

[LeMartinPecheur]

Hmm, I wonder what the late founder of the collection would think of the values placed upon his treasures.

"Yet another Broadwood square piano: do I hear £100 pounds? 80 pounds??"

[Tony Halstead]

Hmm, I wonder what the late founder of the collection would think of the values placed upon his treasures.

"Yet another Broadwood square piano: do I hear £100 pounds? 80 pounds??"

As far as I know, Mr Burnett is still very much alive and not yet 'late'.
I'm thinking that those various Broadwood and other 'square pianos' are going to sell for maybe 4 or 5 times their estimates.

[David-G]

Richard and Katrina Burnett are indeed very much alive. They write:

The important point however is to reassure everyone that we have not abandoned our project of recreating and preserving the sound-world of the great baroque, classical and romantic composers. We will be retaining our Core Collection of playing instruments , as an Open Resource for musical events and research, we will be keeping the Finchcocks Charity for Musical Education to support the maintenance of the instruments and the events themselves. We also will be keeping and re-forming our team of players, teachers and technicians. We are at present exploring alternative locations and various interesting projects.

You can read their full message here: http://www.friendsofsquarepianos.co.uk/finchcocks/.

The "Core Collection" consists of twelve of the best instruments. The auctioneers write:

A small, core collection will be retained as part of the existing Finchcocks Charity. Proceeds from the auction will support the charity in training technicians and tuners, keeping these historical instruments in superb playing condition and preserving their original sound through performance.

There are still two days left, tomorrow and Monday, for anyone who has not yet been to Finchcocks to experience the magic of the place.

[David-G]

I'm thinking that those various Broadwood and other 'square pianos' are going to sell for maybe 4 or 5 times their estimates.

Indeed so. But some of the squares which are priced ultra-cheaply are in need of a considerable amount of restoration.

[Dave2002]

Richard and Katrina Burnett are indeed very much alive.

There are still two days left, tomorrow and Monday, for anyone who has not yet been to Finchcocks to experience the magic of the place.

It doesn't look to me as though the place will be open again - http://www.finchcocks.co.uk/index.php

Pity - I never went, but often thought about going. I think I have at least one LP recorded on an instrument from the collection.

Great looking catalogue. At the prices listed I could even afford some of the instruments, though as suggested they may go for a lot more. I certainly hope so, as otherwise splitting up the collection would seem to be a great shame, and the aims of the sale would be severely compromised.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Richard and Katrina Burnett are indeed very much alive.

Oops, I'm delighted to hear it

[David-G]

It doesn't look to me as though the place will be open again - http://www.finchcocks.co.uk/index.php

Pity - I never went, but often thought about going. I think I have at least one LP recorded on an instrument from the collection.

You could still go tomorrow Sunday, and Monday. The place is open for viewing for the sale - but everything is much as it ever was. You can see the instruments in the beautiful panelled rooms, and play them, and explore the garden, and see the sheep in the surrounding fields.

[BBMmk2]

Very sad to hear this. It was also sad to hear the Finchcocks collection being no more. I was looking forward to seeing this collection. Alas however....

[mercia]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-36259378

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-36273486

[David Pinnegar]

In the course of being asked by a documentary researcher of the provenance of an instrument at Hammerwood Park in Sussex with delight I stumbled upon this page. From the Finchcocks auction two instruments came to Hammerwood and now serve in concert.

https://youtu.be/aIVUyu7v48U?t=672 and https://youtu.be/xwh4Xb1waC0?t=704 is the 1802 Stodart grand which was possibly the most interesting of all the collection being the closest to the transition from harpsichord to piano.

The other instrument, reputedly Dick Burnett's favourite, was the 1859 Concert Iron Broadwood which had been hired to Charles Hallé in that year and bought at full price of 250 guineas by a member of the Manchester audience saying that it was the most wonderful instrument he'd heard in his life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=289iHaTM2f4 was a concert earlier this year.

Before the Finchcocks collection was the Colt Collection, sold a year or two later and an 1819 Beethoven model Broadwood came from there and now enchants audiences and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXZxR0AaXAA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qy9J-fQIHI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjPDefnPQNU

https://youtu.be/sKxpJdvgoCQ

are a few recordings.

Best wishes

David Pinnegar

[french frank]

Thank you for those links, David. Fascinating. I thought we had been discussing Finchcocks more recently than 2016 ... ?

[gradus]

Thanks indeed, some interesting links to follow up.
Coincidentally the TV series Fake or Fortune this week moved from pictures to a piano and a guitar. The piano, a 1901Broadwood Baby Grand was reputedly played on by John Lennon and possibly owned by him, its current owner being Chesney Hawkes. No Lennon connection was proved but somebody said that he knew that the instrument had been at Lennon's (subsequently Ringo Starr's ) house whilst he lived there. This was enough for the Sotheby's valuer to put an estimate of between £10k and £15k on the instrument should it come to auction. If the Lennon link could be proved the proverbial sky's the limit. The guitar however remained a mystery as neither Ronnie Woods nor Keith Richards -both were possible previous owners - could remember owning it.

[Dave2002]

The links to Hammerwood Park are interesting too - https://www.hammerwoodpark.co.uk/concerts.php

Quite a few videos of instruments being played with different temperaments accessible from there.

Has anyone round here been to Hammerwood Park? Is it worth making a visit? Looks possibly worth the effort.

I see that Hatchlands is still functioning as a piano repository.

[David Pinnegar]

At the weekend at Hammerwood www.hammerwoodpark.co.uk we were able to present the Mozarts in Meantone tuning with the 1802 Stodart in fine fettle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIGb5qIrqn4

Whilst the Colt Collection from where the 1819 Broadwood came, and then Finchcocks led the march into the idea of presenting repertoire on the instruments for which they were written, at Hammerwood for the past 20 years I've researched and now lead towards presenting music for the tuning for which it was written.

Having had access to historic straight strung instruments and been tuning at Hammerwood for now over 40 years, I have found a change of harmonic structure between the straight strung instruments such as the English Broadwoods, French Erard and Pleyel, and Viennese Streicher genre https://youtu.be/xwh4Xb1waC0?t=959 and the cross strung instruments such as Bechstein and Steinway which pitted the 5th harmonic of the bass with the sharp and beating major third of the equal tempered scale giving the instrument an impressive glistening to the sound. The focus then shifted from the music to the piano and its brand as a focus of worship.

The result of the research and experiments at Hammerwood over the past two decades have led to my tuning being adopted not only by musicians in London https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb6pt3OvU_o but in Italy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdvT6mAEYjc, France https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq9sb4t3N6o and Greece https://youtu.be/Wiu68b85N1Y?t=148 - https://youtu.be/JvrGV58ZsAU?t=1088

The importance of access to original instruments and their tuning cannot be overstated as by transferring the tuning onto the modern instrument we can actually transfer the spirit of music in the light of what we experience with the original instrument, https://youtu.be/z9V4vlgDaks being a work in progress. The ancient instruments aren't merely a matter of curiosity, nor their tuning, but a resource from which we can draw in finding better performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-nvS5m8cko is another Hammerwood concert which might be of interest.

For many the description of keys having different sounds seemed like the product of wild imagination such as https://legacy.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html but at Hammerwood we really do experience musical keys in the light of audible effects which lean towards those of which Schubart was writing.

Best wishes

David P