6 4 



THE HOUSE AND ITS EQUIPMENT. 



in 1798 to the Queen of Spain. Broad- 

 wood made it, and the case is of satin- 

 wood, superbly decorated with inlay 

 and with Wedgwood and Tassie medal 

 lions in gilt frames (Fig. 95) . It is now i n 

 a London drawing-room, but the portrait 

 of Godoy, by Alexander Taylor, which 

 was fixed where the maker s name is 

 usually written, has, unhappily, dis 

 appeared. Its peculiar interest lies 

 in the fact that Sheraton made the 

 innovation, doubtless startling to the 

 makers of those days, of putting the 

 body on separate legs instead of on a 

 frame connected by stretchers an 

 unhappy departure from which the 

 treatment of pianos is only now begin 

 ning to recover. An unfortunate 

 feature of the design is the presence of 

 three pendants, to which the pedals 

 were attached. For these Sheraton 

 was probably not responsible, and they 

 show the perpetual conflict between 

 the practical needs of the instrument 

 and its artistic treatment. The dis 

 covery that this was the piano made 

 from Sheraton s design is due to the 

 acumen and research of Mr. William 

 Dale, F.S.A., to whom everyone con 

 cerned with the history of the piano 

 and its predecessors is heavily in debt. 

 The need for longer strings, the increase 

 in compass and the growing weight of the 

 when added to the general depravity of 



99. DESIGNED KY MR I.UTYENS. 



instrument, due to the introduction of 

 Victorian art, reduced the piano to a 



TOO. DESIGNED BY MR. FORSYTH. 



heavy iron irarnes, 

 melancholy level of 

 ugliness. Like the 

 milliard - table, it: 

 was subjected to 

 the tyranny of 

 hideous turned 

 legs, a ncl all 

 attempts to 

 beautify the case 

 were abandoned. 



In 1880, 

 h o w e v e r , Sir 

 Edward (then Mr.) 

 Burne-Jones could 

 bear the existing 

 horror of the 

 average piano no 

 longer. He de 

 signed not only the 

 famous Orpheus 

 example (Fig. 96), 

 but one of the 

 same form for 

 himself in oak, 

 but perfect!} plain 

 and stained a 

 bright green, and 

 a third for Mr. Muir 



