60 ANNABELL 
DATE OF THE INSTRUMENT 
The number 53543 handwritten in the lefthand area of the wrestplank, and also 
on the side of key shaft 56, is assumed to be the serial number. Taylor (1981:38) lists 
under Broadwood squares the following serial numbers and their starting dates: 52087 
— 1840; 58000 — 1845. From this premise the instrument may be broadly dated 
between 1840 and 1845. Cross reference with another source which gives 55701 as the 
starting number for Broadwood squares in 1843 (Pierce 1965:40) reduces this dating 
from a 5- to 3-year span (1840-1843). The earliest of two handwritten pencil dates 
(which may be tuning dates) on key shaft 1, however, is 14/6/41, thus narrowing the 
date of manufacture to between 1840 to 1841. 
Due to obscuration of the lettering, it is unclear whether that part of the fallboard 
label acknowledging royal patronage reads “Manufacturers to ‘His’ or to ‘Her’ 
Majesty.” If the latter, the date of manufacture would be after Queen Victoria’s 
accession in 1837, and this accords with the above dating. The solid metal hitchpin 
plate was an invention of Broadwood’s as early as 1821 (Harding 1978:200). Its 
combination in the present instrument with a solid metal brace and the confident 
placing of that brace as a link between plate and wrestplank suggests an established 
usage which may well have extended into the 1840s. 
THE NEW ZEALAND HISTORIC BACKGROUND 
(Abbreviations used below are: OCMar = Old Colonists’ Museum Accession Register; OCMc 
= OldColonists’ Museum correspondence; AlMar = Auckland Institute and Museum 
Accession Register; APL = Auckland Public Library. 
The pianoforte was accessioned by the Old Colonists’ Museum, Auckland, on 
June 16, 1937 (OCMar 1934-1964:1420, APL). Details noted at that time were: 
“Brought to New Zealand by Miss Christopher, who married Samuel Clarke, son of 
George Clarke, Protector of Aborigines, Philip Armstrong, donor of the piano, is the 
great-great-grandson of George Clarke”. The marriage of Samuel Clarke to Mary 
Christopher is recorded in The New-Zealander 4 July 1857,(p.3,col.1). 
On the day of its arrival at the Old Colonists’ Museum (29/4/37), the Director, 
John Barr, wrote to Philip Armstrong requesting more information on the 
instrument, which he stated had been in New Zealand “for over 100 years” 
(OCMc,APL). This, however, would make the instrument pre-1837, beyond the 
concluded date of manufacture as set out above. No record of a reply, apart from the 
details noted above, has been located. The pianoforte was presented to the Auckland 
Museum by the Auckland City Council with other specimens from the Old Colonists’ 
Museum in 1965 (AIMar 1958-1965, 78/65). 
Acknowledgements: Thanks are due to the Museum’s Voluntary Curator of Musical 
Instruments, Len Stanners, for making known to the writer details of the pianoforte’s 
proposed restoration and availability for inspection. The assistance of the restorer Paul 
Downie, particularly in supplying the scientific measurements of the stringing, is greatly 
appreciated. 
