Pianos For The People: From Producer To Consumer in Britain, 1851-1914

37
Pianos for the People: From Producer

to Consumer in Britain, 18511914
FRANCESCACARNEVALI
LUCYNEWTON
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 and
selling 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 lled 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: journals.permissions@oup.com
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: f.carnevali@bham.ac.uk.
LUCY NEWTON is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Economic History at
the University of Reading. Contact information: Henley Business School,
University of Reading, Whiteknighhts, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AA, UK.
E-mail: a.newton@reading.ac.uk.
We would like to thank the staff of the Surrey History Centre, Woking; the
Guildhall Library, London; the British Newspaper Library, Colindale; Harrods
Archive, London; University of Glasgow Archive, Glasgow; Westminster City
Archives, London; Hackney Archives, London; Victoria & Albert Museum
Archives, London; the Victoria & Albert National Art Library, London; and Dr
Leigh-Shaw Taylor and the Cambridge Group for the Study of Population and
Social 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 number
of points. All remaining mistakes remain ours.

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CARNEVALI AND NEWTON 38
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 ttings, and stuffed animals.
1
Even 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,
2
and 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.
4
Much less, however, is
known about the process of mediation that took place between pro-
ducer, retailer, and consumer.
5
There is a gap in our knowledge of
the link between production and selling during this period, when:
few rms 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 junction
6
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 nd their way into all homes,
contemporary photographs are visual testament to the love for ornamentation of
the late Victorians. Ane 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 Society
1907 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 Politics
of Mass Consumption; Hilton, Consumerism in Twentieth Century Britain. The
Search for a Historical Movement; Hilton, Smoking in British Popular Culture.
5. An exception is the work of Oldenziel and de la Bruhze, eds, Manufacturing
Technology, Manufacturing Consumers.
6. The consumption junction is dened as the place and time at which the
consumer makes choices between competing technologies, quoted in Oldenziel
and 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 through
consumer organizations (e.g., those defending consumer rights), governments (e.g.,
legislating to protect consumers), and political organizations. Given the newness
of 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. See
Benson, 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
signicant alterations in technology, which modied them to suit
a variety of tastes.
9
Meanwhile 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.
10
As 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 the
ways 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.
11
We 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 of
Production reveal that the production of these goods accounted for 8 percent of
net output of total manufacturing. If nished manufactured goods alone are con-
sidered, the share of household goods goes up to 12 percent. The numbers are
similar for employment. These gures are likely to be an underestimate as the
1907 Census did not include small establishments, those employing fewer than 10
people, 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 to
decorate the home, a genre that became popular after the 1880s. For examples, see
Edis, 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
signicance 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, and
Homemaking
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 and
working classes. The economy grew faster in the second half of the
nineteenth century, compared to the rst 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 fty
years.
13
Real wages also increased signicantly, 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.
14
Food 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.
15
Overcrowding 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.
16
At 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 Estimates
of 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 Classin Britain 18701914, 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.
17
It was this
group who looked to emulate the established wealthy in society,
as they beneted from greater disposable incomes and more leisure
time.
18
It 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 uctuating over the
period. What is signicant 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 luxury
of 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.
21
However, the growth of working- and middle-
classincomes was great enough to establish a market for goods that
had 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
oor-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 the
co-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.
24
Given 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.
25
The middle classes ceased to live over the shop and moved
to the new suburbs like Edgbaston in Birmingham and Victoria Park
in Manchester.
26
Middle-class suburban areas, like the eight miles of
houses between London Bridge and Hampton Court, were populated
by 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 the petite bourgeoisie
28
to white-collar employees, industrial-
ists, and professionals, fragmented into layer upon layer of subclasses,
keenly aware of their subtle grades of distinction.
29
Housing, as well
as work, reected the stratication 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, chapter6.
28. Crossick, Haupt, The Petite Bourgeoisie in Europe 17801914.
29. Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society: A Social History of Victorian
Britain 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 music
30
; and
by the early part of the twentieth century, pianos could be found in the
parlours of those workers in stable employment.
31
As the Piano, Organ
and Music Trades Journal observed 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 were
displayed as symbols of achievement and worldly success.
33
Of 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.
34
As a symbol of gentil-
ity, the piano could not be bettered; even the Pooters, characters in
the comic novel Diary of a Nobody published in 1892, owned a never-
played piano, an upright cottage model, bought on hire purchase.
35
As
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 of
Decoration (1881), Beautiful Houses: Being a Description of Certain Well-known
Artistic Houses (1882), Rus in Urbe: or Flowers that Thrive in London Gardens
and Smoky Towns (1886), and The Art of Housekeeping: ABridal 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 Victorian
House,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 reected the social
benets that a piano could bring to a woman, clearly perceived to be
greater than those it could bring to a man.
37
For 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.
38
In 1891 the innkeeper Mary Wilson of Walsall left her daugh-
ter Clara her pianoforte,
39
while ten years later, Benjamin Bibby, a
gentleman from Muncaster, Cumberland, left his ve children gener-
ous trusts for life but to his only daughter he left her fathers piano-
forte and music books.
40
Pianos 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.
41
The 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,
43
while
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 classcould 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 and
Music in Nineteenth-Century Fiction; Loesser, Men, Women, and Pianos: A Social
History; 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 Ofce,
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 and
Customers 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 rst 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.
47

In this respect, they represented the exception in piano production,
which was dominated by numerous small rms.
48
Asurvey of Kellys
trade directories for London reveals 178 entries under pianoforte
44. See the work of Ross including Survival Networks: Womens
Neighbourhood Sharing in London before World War I, in which she consid-
ers the working poor. For the US, see Porter-Benson, Working-class Family
Economies 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 same
dates; and in Germany, production increased from approximately 15,000 in 1870
to approximately 120,000 in 1910. Ehrlich, The Piano: A History, 222.
46. There are no entirely reliable output data on piano production. The gures
quoted 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 London
alone were making pianos and that they turned out 90,000 pianos every year. See
Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, Feb. 1900, no.210, vol. xvii (new series
no.178),647.
47. Wainwright, Broadwood, Henry Fowler (18111893), Piano Manufacturer,
45859.
48. It may be expected that large rms tend to be mass producers of lower-
quality goods. Yet in the case of pianos, large rms were also the high-end, qual-
ity producers. The same was true in the pottery industry; see Popp, Business
Structure, 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.
49
Indeed the structure of the UK piano industry remained sim-
ilar throughout the period and comprised of three groups: established
rms (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 prots that could be made. Moreover,
from the 1870s, the larger producers would contract out their work to
such 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 prots that could be made. From a survey of over 327 piano
rms 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 30years, 12 percent from 31 to 40years, and 10 percent
from 41 to 50years. 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 is
those rms that lasted at least a year, but the survival rates from
this sample look relatively healthy, given the poor survival rates
of modern small rms. There were also some very healthy excep-
tionsBroadwoods lasted over 200 and Brinsmeads survived over
100yearsbut most rms 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 rm but operated in the many stages of piano manufacture on
a casual basis, paid by the piece.
52
Only a few core workers were
on the payroll of larger rms. Many factory hands were laid off in
49. Kellys Post Ofce Directory of London. Directories were surveyed between
1851 and 1914. The directory only clearly differentiates which rms were operat-
ing as dealers only in the 1914 directory, when 44 dealers are included in the list
of 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 processes
in piano production. See Piano Book, Kemble & Co., Hackney Archives, London.

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summer and autumn when trade was slack.
53
Piano making served
a seasonal market, with low sales in summer and higher sales in
winter (for Christmas) and spring (for weddings).
54
Thus some work-
shops made cabinets, desks, or even cofns when pianos were not in
demand.
55
Small- and medium-sized rms could construct the piano
partly from materials and partly from components that had already
been processed, such as keys and backs. The plethora of piano com-
ponent makers, testifying to the existence of a production system of
exible 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. Table1 shows 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 gures, 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
uctuate with both the seasons and economic cycles.
Table 1 Occupation in 1881 Census
Piano and Piano Part Makers
Piano makers 2725
Piano makingparts 553
Piano making processes 466
Piano makersmanagers 7
Piano makersforeman 9
Piano makersworkers 198
Piano makersapprentices 105
Piano makersassistants 23
Piano tuner + makers 28
Piano makers + other wooden furniture 16
4130
Piano Sellers and Dealers
Selling 39
Dealers 258
297
Source: 1881 Population Census. Figures provided by the Cambridge Group for the Study of
Population 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 Radio
Industry.
55. This is made clear from the occupations provided in the 1881 Population
Census; 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 rm of signicant
size, employing only 40 people by 1890.
56
Piano 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 Town
and Kentish Town also lay near the railheads of Kings Cross, Euston,
and St Pancras.
57
Such 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 rst 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.
59
Other
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 t 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.
61
Costs tended to be high and productivity low. As a result,
turnover was modest, but large prot margins could be achieved as
retail prices were relatively high.
62
In addition to its lack of machin-
ery, the industry was also characterized by a lack of standardisation
in production. Alarge rm would produce a range of different types
of piano and even smaller rms could differentiate their nished
products in terms of ornamentation or type of wood. Acontemporary
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 History
from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand; Parakilas, Piano Roles: Three
Hundred Years of Life with the Piano; Loesser, Men, Women, and Pianos.
61. Lardner, The Great Exhibition and London in 1851.
63. Also, before construction could begin, wood had to be left to season before
it 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 simplied 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 ex-
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.
65
Such improvements made in manufacturing processes
allowed 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.
66
The 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 Interactionism
Perspective, 319.

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meaning. This corresponds with the idea that people are evalu-
ated and placed in their social nexus to a signicant degree by the
products which surround them.
67
Piano marketing tended to reect
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.
68
This 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 reected
in the neighbouring opinionseveral feet taller on the strength of
the pianoforte, and he is satised.
69
The importance of the social meanings of the piano was under-
stood by those who made and marketed them. Manufacturers and
sellers 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.
70
Clearly, 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 emulation
which was at least as powerful as in Victorian England. In France, the market,
and consequently production, was smaller with the piano remaining a bourgeois
instrument purchased to show wealth. In Germany, the home and export market
was 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, and
Consumers in Britain and the United States since the Mid-nineteenth Century;
Church, The Origins of Competitive Advantage in the Marketing of Branded
Packaged 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 Consumer
Goods in Nineteenth-century Britain: Reinterpretations.

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often used price as a proxy for quality.
71
But 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.
72
Medals 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 rm 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.
74
These rms 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 of
inferior instruments.
76
Exhibitions continued into the twentieth century. Lord Northcliffe
founded The Daily Mail Ideal 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 Product
Quality, 5323, and Brucks, Zeithaml, and Naylor, Price and Brand Name as
Indicators of Quality Dimensions for Consumer Durables, 363.
72. For a discussion of exhibitions in general, see Walton, France at the Crystal
Palace: 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 and
Sons, 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.
78
Unlike 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 with
which 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 specic 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 Ideal
Home Exhibition, Challen & Sons advertized that they had recently
supplied the King of Portugal.
81
Meanwhile John Broadwood & Sons
current website proudly lists the members of the British royal family
(seven kings and three queens) for whom the rm has manufactured
pianos, demonstrating the continued value that Royal endorsements
can bring.
82
Association with famous gures 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 specication of the
Dutch painter, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, for use in his family house
overlooking Regents Park (see gure1). 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 of
Quality 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 Sir
Henry 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 rm 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 and
customer experience as being of value
86
and so it was in the nineteenth
century. In 1872 the professional pianist Arabella Goddard wrote to
83. ht t p: / / www. s ur r eycc. gov. uk/ s ccwebs i t e/ s ccws pages . ns f /
LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/John+Broadwood+and+Sons+Piano+Manufactur
ers?opendocument.
84. Ibid.
85. Wainwright, Broadwood, Henry Fowler (18111893), Piano Manufacturer,
45859.
86. Herrmann, Huber, Shao, and Bao, Building Brand Equity via Product
Quality, 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.
87
Dolge includes a chapter on
testimonials from pianists, stressing their importance.
88
Testimonials
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 rm 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 in
choosing new names for them, Broadwood attributed to its custom-
ers a rather robust self-image. This also demonstrates that the rm
targeted the middle-classmarket.
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 City
Archives, London.
88. Dolge, Pianos and their Makers, part 4, chapter2.
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 department
store 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 lls the dual
position of musical instrument and house ornament.
91
The 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
Journal stated that manufacturers were rmly 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.
93
Harrods held concerts in its piano
department, providing weekly recitals by famous musicians.
94
These
performances also received reviews in newspapers, which usually
referred to the make of piano being played. Broadwood collected
them
95
and Cramer listed reviews from the music press in its trade cat-
alogue.
96
Such 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.
98
More 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 (new
92. 1851 Exhibition, 42. Westminster City Archives, London.
93. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no.216, Aug. 1900, vol. XVII (new
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.
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, The
Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 18511914.

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Advertising in the Victorian era was primarily informative and
focused upon the product. It communicated the pianos brand, price,
and information about the manufacturer (such as the company address,
prizes won, dates the rm was established). The nineteenth-century
trade press for piano dealers unsurprisingly emphasized advertising
as a marketing tool. The Pianoforte Dealers Guide, launched in 1882,
claimed free distribution to buyers, guaranteed to be 4,000 copies a
month. It was supported by subscriptions and advertising. Afull-page
advert in 1882 would cost a manufacturer up to 2 for half a page, and
3 for the inside cover.
99
The trade press was crowded with adverts
for pianos placed by manufacturers, who viewed such publications as
a key source for reaching dealers. These adverts were usually attrac-
tively illustrated with pictures of pianos, frequently in some detail,
always without background or setting, and including lists of prices
for the instruments. Adverts from dealers were also present, but far
less numerous.
In 1882, articles in the The Pianoforte Dealers Guide complained
of trade being slack and dull, with the exception of John
Brinsmead& Sons. This success was viewed as being a result of the
companys attending various international exhibitions, then winning
medals at such exhibitions, plus extensive and judicious advertis-
ing.
100
In 1900 the journal, renamed Piano, Organ and Music Trades
Journal, repeated its advocacy for advertising:
The manufacturer who does not in some way keep himself and his
goods before the public cannot be said it be in the swim It is
absolutely necessary that the reputation of a manufacturers instru-
ments should be kept in the public mind... The public is ckle...
and dealers have to be ckle as well to accommodate ever-changing
public taste.
101
It was obviously in the journals interests to promote advertising,
as revenue from this activity was crucial for its survival, but manu-
facturers evidently saw the journal as a useful means to communicate
directly with dealers. In turn, dealers depended upon advertising to
keep up to date with manufacturers offerings and such discounts
as were available. Advertisements helped dealers to make decisions
about what to buy and how to adapt to the market. Plainly all in the
piano trade realized advertisings importance in generating business
and in charting changing fashions in public tastes. After all, dealers
99. The Pianoforte Dealers Guide, no.2, April 1882, vol. 1, front cover.
100. The Pianoforte Dealers Guide, no.4, Aug. 1882, vol. 1, 139.
101. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no.210, Feb. 1900, vol. XVII (new

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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 rm should pay for advertising and believed it to
be unnecessary and vulgar.
102
Nonetheless, Broadwoods did advertise
its pianos in the trade press and produced its rst advertising brochure
in 1895.
103
By 1900 the rm 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.
104
Such
placements allowed them to reach a broader audience, including most
of the plausible buying public. Both trade and press advertising cost
them 200 per annum in 1900.
105
Fowlers 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 Journal realized that adver-
tising by itself was not sufcient to generate business:
If you buy a few inches of advertising space and then sit back in
your chair, and expect trade to ow into your door as a result of your
ad, without following it up with personal work and up-to-date
methods 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 (new
series no.119), 36.

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The other, more usual type of advertisement that appeared in news-
papers was the classied ad for pianos, which reached an even broader
audiencethose who earned lower incomes. For example, a look at the
classied section of The Morning Post in 1899 reveals several columns
of adverts for pianos.
108
Two adverts for pianos appeared a genera-
tion earlier, in The Penny Illustrated Paper in February 1862, between
notices for harmoniums and sewing machines.
109
These 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 classied
advertisements were much cheaper than those offered in department
stores, manufacturers showrooms and the outlets of specialist dealers.
The classieds catered for those who were concerned with achieving
ownership at a low price rather than seeking quality. They reected
thisno 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 nancial 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.
112
Alack 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 currency
converter, http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency/. No comparable prices
are available from department stores until later in the century.
112. Boyer, Living Standards, 18601939, 286.

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1850s and 1860s, and pianos remained a very expensive consumer
good. Accessibility was increased to some extent through the hiring
of pianos, typically at 10 shillings to 1 per month, often offered
with the opportunity to purchase the instrument after 6months at a
discounted price.
113
As the quantity of pianos being produced increased from the 1860s
due to standardisation and improvements in production technology,
the range of pianos manufactured increased, especially those at the
cheaper end of the market. Greater choice and lower prices meant
more opportunity for more people to own pianos. From the 1880s, as
imports stimulated competition, exclusive agreements with English
manufacturers loosened and dealers began selling a variety of national
makes. Competition amongst dealers brought down prices and led to
improvements in credit terms for customers.
114
Dealers offered hire
purchase arrangements for customers on both new and second-hand
pianos,
115
which pushed down prices at the bottom, mid and high
ends of the market.
116
From the 1890s, department stores also began to sell pianos and to
compete directly with specialist dealers. Harrods in London opened
its piano department in 1895.
117
Army & Navy began retailing pianos
as well, through its department store in London and also through its
mail order catalogue.
118
Another, Whiteleys, sold pianos from the late
nineteenth century,
119
as did Selfridges, opened in 1909. These depart-
ment stores innovated in their style of retailing. Very large rms, they
operated with low prot margins and high turnover, attracted a huge
public and played a key role in creating a new form of consumer soci-
ety.
120
Dealers opposed the sale of musical instruments in department
113. Elder-Duncan, The House Beautiful, 163; Ehrlich, The Piano, 98104;
Laurence, The Evolution of the Grand Piano, 9699.
115. In 1911, Kay Pearson, a 15-year old from Hull was allowed a piano on
what is now called hire purchase, my mother signing on my behalf in case of
any default. It was a second-hand Scheidmayer with a beautiful tone cost 15
guineas. One pound deposit and 1/- per month. Pearson, Life in Hull from Then
Till Now, 70.
116. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no.149, Jan. 1895, vol. XIII (new
series no.117),4.
117. The Harrods Stores Catalogue 1895, 1537. Pianoforte and Musical
Instrument Dept. Harrods Archive, London.
118. Army & Navy Co-operative Society, Yesterdays Shopping.
119. Westminster City Archive, London.
120. Jeffereys, Retail Trading in Britain 18501950; Lancaster, The Department
Store, A Social History; Lomax, The Department Store and the Creation of the
Spectacle, 18801940; Moss and Turton, ALegend of Retailing, House of Fraser;
Pasdermadjian, The Department Store, Its Origins, Evolution and Economics.

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stores, arguing that such outlets lacked expertise, but obviously deal-
ers were interested in protecting their retail positions.
121
For the
consumer, the piano had gone from exclusive distribution channels
(specialized dealerships), which enhanced its prestige and exclusiv-
ity as a good, to greater availability through department stores, even
by way of mail order catalogues. Despite the loss of such exclusivity,
consumers would be more likely to buy a piano when it was available
in a greater number of stores, because they were offered the product
where and when they wanted it.
122
Department stores were highly
visible and very popular. Selling in these outlets meant that more
people saw the instrument, given the customer trafc that passed
through these stores. Moreover, specialist dealers, although they had
great depth of knowledge about pianos and the music they produced,
could be intimidating for a customer who was not familiar with the
instrument, whereas department stores were more open spaces where
browsing offered a more inviting environment.
Whiteleys department store sold pianos in its Show Rooms,
which occupy an area of about 5,000 feet, are stocked with the grand
and Upright Pianofortes of all makers of repute, at a considerable dis-
count below manufacturers prices, together with Pianofortes of the
Companys own manufacture, from 16 guineas [just under 17].
123

Harrodss piano department covered most of the second oor to dis-
play the instruments and to allow customers to play a piano before
deciding to buy. During this period, Harrods catered for a variety of
consumers and did not posses the luxury image that it developed
in the second half of the twentieth century. Both middle- and upper-
classcustomers could therefore purchase pianos from the store at a
range of prices. This can be seen from the wide range of types of and
prices for pianos that Harrods offered.
124
Harrods sold second-hand as well as new pianos. This provided even
greater choice to buyers, especially in terms of price. Table 2 shows
that, by 1910, Harrods had purchased over 1,856 pianos and sold over
1,950. The reason for the discrepancy in the number of pianos sold
over those being purchased is that some pianos were purchased and
sold twice. Acustomer who bought a piano from Harrods could return
it at a later date and sell it to the department store (who would then
121. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no.149, Jan. 1895, vol. XIII (new
series no.117),4.
122. Farris, James, and de Kluyver, The Relationship between Distribution
and Market Share, 107.
123. William Whiteley Ltd. Illustrated Furnishing Catalogue, 1900, vii, 726/57.
Westminster City Archives, London.
124. The Harrods Store Catalogue, 1905, 1362. Harrods Archive, London.

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sell it on) or could trade it in as part-exchange for a newer model.
125

Whiteleys also received old pianos in exchange, or as part payment,
for new instruments,
126
as did specialist dealers.
127
The majority of
these instruments were sold in and around London but some travelled
further aeld, into the Provinces to places like Shefeld, Newcastle,
Uttoxeter, Maidenhead, Cardiff, and Cheltenham.
The manufacture of low-price, non-branded pianos (by estab-
lished manufacturers) for department stores increased their afford-
ability and undercut the prices of specialist dealers. In 1905, Harrods
sold unbranded pianettes (small upright pianos) for as little as 15
and 15 shillings or on credit, 1 and 12 shillings per quarter to be
paid over a period of 3years. Two unbranded upright pianos (a type
for a middle-class parlor) retailed for 22 and 26 guineas. In contrast,
a branded upright piano, made by Chappell or Brinsmead, cost
from 30 to 105 guineas, and a branded grand piano up to 175 guineas.
Afull-concert, Broadwood grand piano was available for 350 guineas
in the same year.
128
Whiteleys also sold their own range of unbranded
cottage upright pianos, which ranged from 18 and 10 shillings (or 1
and 17 shillings per quarter on the hire purchase system) to 37 and
10 shillings (or 3 and 15 shillings per quarter).
129
Like dealers, department stores also offered hire purchase arrange-
ments, bringing pianos within the nancial reach of the better-paid
workers. The Harrods catalogue offered an equitable system of
125. The Harrods piano stock books are organized by listing the rst purchase
date of the piano by the store. Subsequent sale dates are then noted. If the piano
was purchased new and sold twice, its second sale was not registered as second
hand. However, Harrods also purchased second-hand pianos and also sold these
more than twice.
126. William Whiteley Ltd. Illustrated Furnishing Catalogue, 1900, vii, 726/57.
127. Piano, Organ and Music Trades Journal, no. 214, June 1900, vol. XVII
(new series no.181), 741.
128. The Harrods Store Catalogue, 1905. Harrods Archive, London.
129. Whiteleys General Catalogue, 1007, 726/15, April 1914. Westminster City
Archives, London.
Table 2 Pianos bought and sold by the piano department, Harrods, 18951910
Purchased Sold
Year New Second hand Total New Second Hand Total
1895 224 0 224 103 0 103
1900 319 49 368 341 46 387
1905 493 57 550 641 82 723
1910 644 60 704 668 69 737
Source: Piano Stock Books, Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, Harrodss Archive, London.

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deferred payment by offering quarterly instalments under hire pur-
chase agreement, extending over a period of one, two or three years,
which in most cases added 10 percent on to the price. This catered
for those who needed to spread the payments of such a substantial
purchase over time. Whiteleys stated that practically every make of
piano can be acquired by our New System of Deferred Payment
spread over one, two or three years (see table 3).
130
The mark-up
on the hire purchase system was similar to that of Harrods, about 10
percent. Hire purchase was crucial in the spread of the purchase of
consumer durables such as the piano. Scott estimates that the number
of hire purchase agreements in operation increased from 1 million in
1891 to 6 million by 1924 and were crucial to the development of a
consumer society.
131
The 1915, Harrods catalogue advertised a liberal discount for
cash, which was presumably advantageous to those at the wealthier
end of the market who had the resources to buy on these terms.
132

Those buying a branded rosewood grand with a list price of 95 guin-
eas could obtain a price of 76 guineas if they paid casha discount of
20 percent.
133
Whiteleys offered A discount of 20% to 40% is given
for cash off Makers List Prices.
134
In order to compete with specialist dealers, Harrods and Whiteleys
offered additional services. Harrods employed a team of tuners who
travelled around the UK tending pianos for Harrods customer.
135

Tuning was undertaken on the basis of a single visit or via a yearly
contract; a repair service was also offered.
136
Whiteleys likewise pro-
vided repairs, tunings, removals, and free delivery in all districts
served by our own vans within a radius of about 30 miles; beyond
Table 3 An example of Whiteleyss new system of deferred payments (1914)
Makers list and usual 3-year system price (48 guineas) 50, 8, 0
Whiteleyss cash price (38 guineas) 37, 16, 0
Payable in 3 years by 12 quarterly instalments of 3, 9, 4 41, 12, 0
Actual saving on Whiteleyss 3-year system 8, 14, 0
Source: Westminster City Archives, London: 726/15, April 1914, Whiteleyss General Catalogue,
p. 1007.
Archives, London.
131. Scott, The Twilight World of Interwar Hire Purchase, 19697.
133. The Harrods Store Catalogue, 1915, 799800. Harrods Archive, London
Archives, London.
135. The Harodian Gazette, Summer 1994, 100 Not Out! Harrods Archive,
London.

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that distance we pack for free, and send carriage paid, to the nearest
Railway Station in the United Kingdom.
137
The pianos sold by Army & Navy through their 1907 mail order cat-
alogue were slightly more expensive than those offered by Whitleys
or Harrods (presumably to cover the cost of printing the very substan-
tial catalogue and distributing it). Their unbranded upright pianos
sold from 28 and 10 shillings to 42, and their branded uprights
(Broadwood and Collard & Collard) ranged from 42 to 90 for upright
pianos and 100 to 160 for grand pianos.
138
The larger manufacturers
themselves also had showrooms from which they sold pianos directly
to the public. Broadwood used its premises in Soho, where it had
originally constructed pianos and harpsichords, as its showroom once
manufacture had moved to larger premises in Westminster. Chappells
had (and still have) a showroom on Bond Street in central London. In
1869, Cramer & Co had two showrooms in London and other outlets
in Brighton, Dublin, and Belfast.
139
From the 1880s onwards, competition from abroad, greater com-
petition amongst dealers, the availability of pianos in department
stores, the selling of pianos via hire purchase agreements, the ability
to buy and resell pianos, and the availability of both unbranded and
second-hand pianos all contributed to the increasing accessibility of
the piano to the ordinary consumer.
Conclusion
The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a burgeon-
ing consumer society; as incomes grew, leisure time increased and
the ways in which the middle and lower classes chose to repre-
sent their identities changed, including how they furnished their
homes. Producers and retailers both met and stimulated demand
for household goods. In doing so, understanding the wants and
needs of consumers was crucial in the decisions made about how
to make, market, and sell these goods, and how rms could inno-
vate in terms of technology, rm structure and organisation, and in
marketing.
This article has examined the production, marketing, and selling
of the piano, an emblematic consumer good of the Victorian period
137. Whiteleys General Catalogue, 726/15, April 1914, and William Whiteley
Ltd. Illustrated Furnishing Catalogue, 1900, vii. 1007 and 726/57. Westminster
City Archives, London.
138. Army & Navy Co-operative Society, Yesterdays Shopping, 113843.
139. Cramer & Co trade catalogue, 607, AD 0223. Victoria & Albert Art Library.
Unfortunately there are no data available on this manufacturers prices.

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140. Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos.
141. Blaszczyk, Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood
to Corning, 910.
142. Edis, Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses, 20; Elder-Duncan, The
House Beautiful, 153.
and one which nicely illustrates capitalisms conundrum: how to
meet supply with demand. For the Victorians, the piano was a com-
plex good, a material and cultural signier of many features of life.
It was a musical instrument around which the family could gather
and that gave its owner (especially women) the precious quality of
accomplished homemaker.
140
It was associated with the arts and
grand concerts, and through its ownership, consumers could sug-
gest the possession of technical skill and aesthetic qualities. It was
expensive and as such an item of conspicuous consumption that
spoke of real, or assumed, wealth. As an object of study, the piano
helps to reveal the multifaceted nature of the process of mediation
between consumers and producers. In this process, retailers and
dealers acted as fashion intermediaries.
141
Through complicated
networks of retailers and dealers and the marketing strategies they
used to depict the various meanings of the piano, manufacturers
could interpret and give shape to consumers cultural and social
ambitions. Thanks to a system of exible production, piano makers
could adapt and innovate their production. They could also expand
the range of types of pianos they made to suit a variety of pockets
and tastes, with designs and ornamentation responding to changes
in fashion in interior decoration.
142
Thus this essay shines a light on
innovations in the production, marketing, and selling of the piano
(a complex consumer good) to meet the demands of an increasingly
diverse market. In so doing, it demonstrates the need to look more
closely at how makers, sellers, and consumers understood and medi-
ated their relationships.
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Pianos For The People: From Producer To Consumer in Britain, 1851-1914

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