The Ballroom, Music Room, and Piano Shifting...

Welcome to day 7 of the tour (my gosh, this could go on for weeks)! Today we share one of our reception rooms for the first time, the ballroom. We took some of the inspiration from the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, and although in no way as large and as grand, there are distinctly recognizable elements, such as the mirror at the south end, doubling the size of the room and showing the view of the gardens to the north. Then there are the gilded consoles and pier lights above, between each of the French windows.

There are 3 large chandeliers as well, centrered on the doors into the music room...

and highly polished oak floors with parquetry borders. The photo below was taken the night before our guests arrived, at twilight with the sunset starting to stream in through the French doors and set the crystals aglow. We had cleared all the furniture out of the room so that the floors could have one final polish. I doubt they will ever be as flawless again (Louis XIV didn't have to contend with stilletto heels and disco dancing!)

Throwing open the bifold doors we now enter the music room, with the Broadwood Grand...

It had arrived a month or two earlier (before the terrace marble was down or the balustrade was completed)...

The boys were very careful not to damage either the piano, or the floors in anyway. They have over 25,000 pianos on their books that they look after, repair, tune, refurbish or restore.

The lid, legs and music board ready to be reassembled...

The piano with its old wooden frame, laid on its side so the legs could be screwed in. Each leg had a large wooden screw on the end.

The lyre-shaped peddles...

The final product...

Being an antique piano, before the age of steel frames etc, it will never be able to be tuned to concert pitch, but we are happy with it being tuned to a semitone below. I'm sure our friends will be able to tune their flutes, cellos and violins down a notch a la baroque chamber orchestra. A shiny new black Yamaha would just have been so wrong for this room. I do hope you agree? Now there are no excuses for Peter and me to get on and learn that duet.

Sounds Grand...

Peter and I have been on the hunt for some seminal pieces of furniture for the manor e.g. a billiard table for the billiard room and a grand piano for the music room. This weekend we managed to secure one of the pieces - a grand piano. Peter is off to look at a billiard table tomorrow.

The piano is a John Broadwood & Sons model, made in 1880. It is fashioned out of mahogany with ebony and ivory keys....

Above and below: The piano in situ in the vendor's house.

Above: Notice the original fretwork is still in excellent condition, spelling out the name "Broadwood".  The rest of the woodwork is in good condition, it just needs a decent polish, and musically there is nothing that a tune and a service won't fix.

The size is known as a 'drawing room grand' and would have cost 160 Guineas new (even though the last guineas were minted in 1813, guineas still continued to be referred to, indicating a cost of 21 shillings. The term retained aristocratic overtones and professional fees, payment for land, art, horses, furniture and luxury items were often still quoted in Guineas until decimalisation in 1971). The average income at the time was Ca. 1 Guinea per week).

Broadwood is perhaps the most prolific maker of pianos in history, definitely in British history.

He was given a royal warrant by almost every monarch between George II to the present, and many composers owned Broadwoods.

I have been listening to a lot of Elgar lately, so I was pleased to discover he owned a Broadwood...

So all in all a good choice for a period English country house. Now we have a few more pieces to find for the music room, such as nice piano stool, a lyre shaped music stand and a harp.

Above: A nice lyre shaped music stand.

We already have a darling little music Canterbury for storing sheet music, similar to these ones...

Peter plays the flute (a fact I discovered only when I came across his flute when we were packing up the house a couple of years ago) and we both play the piano, so we are working on an Elgar duet for the opening: Elgar's Chanson de Matin...

More pictures of music room inspiration...

Period Rooms:

Above: The oldest grand piano in England, shown here in Apsley House, London (The Duke of Wellington's Residence).

and modern rooms: