From some indeterminate date, around 1790, square pianos made by Southwell abandon these brass dampers and substitute yet another novelty - 'Irish' or dolly dampers - probably Southwell's best and most enduring invention. However, with their conventional string disposition (with bass strings nearest the player) these square pianos have the sparrows located at the back, attached to a diagonal rail above the strings. Zumpe, but instead of the usual retro wooden lever dampers (assisted by whalebone springs) Southwell retains his unique 'sparrow' dampers. Their mechanism is basically the ubiquitous bump action, similar to that used by J. These elegant pianos are now so much admired by collectors that on the rare occasions when one is offered for sale it inevitably commands a much higher price than its musical merit would suggest.Ī more affordable type of piano from Southwell was this five-octave instrument in rectanglar form, to all appearances a standard square piano but here again there are characteristic signs of his innovations inside. So it is certain that, unlike so many English pianos, these pianos were always and necessarily played with the lid fully opened. Observe also that the swell louvres can be opened only when the lid is raised. You must operate the knee lever to obtain the maximum sound. The lid must be propped as shown (for otherwise the keyboard is inaccessible), which enhanced the tone to some degree. With such a very small soundboard these pianos cannot ever have had a very robust tone, and this is further diminished by a set of louvres covering the soundboard. To further enhance their charm these castings are incised with circles for the birds' eyes and indications of feathers. As you play, they seem to bob up and down randomly as if pecking for corn from an invisible seed tray. They sit above the strings near the player and facing away. A unique innovation, apparently without precedent in either German or English pianos of the period, is the damper design, which takes the form of cast brass levers shaped like sparrows, one for each note. The hammers are retro oriented and attached to the keys in a design that appears to be derived from Rhenish piano makers – this deduction seemingly confirmed by the provision of a sled that slides under the keyboard to raise it up towards the strings. Though their buyers may not have appreciated it, and perhaps never examined the interior, the action or hammer mechanism is completely unlike anything used in London-made pianos of the period. Neatly made wooden louvres obscuring the soundboard can be opened discretely by a knee lever at the right. Unlike conventional square pianos these instruments have their bass strings at the back. When opened, the lid lifts as a whole, revealing shell or fan-pattern veneer work on the underside and a keyboard of five octaves, characteristically lacking FF#. When closed these pianos look exactly like the classical pier tables supplied by Robert Adam for aristocratic houses. His enduring fame was established by his invention of a strikingly elegant pianoforte in the form of a demi-lune side table, veneered and inlaid in highly fashionable style, that was guaranteed to appeal to a wealthy elite. Photo copyright: Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park. Perhaps the explanation may be that he was not actually born in Ireland, though he and his family always claimed Irish nationality. Discovering his place of birth has thus far defeated all researches. He was therefore a contemporary of John Broadwood - much too mature to be an apprentice in 1770s. She points out that when William Southwell died, in London in 1825, his age was given as 88 years, implying that he was born c.1736-7. There is in fact a great deal of misleading information available concerning Southwell that has been recently exposed as false by the research of Margaret Debenham whose late husband Michael was a descendant. Assertions that he was apprenticed to Ferdinand Weber in Dublin, then or previously, cannot be sustained from any known document, and an examination of Weber's work shows how improbable it would be. His earliest confirmed residence in Dublin was in the late 1770s when he was gaining a reputation as a maker of harpsichords and pianofortes. No person had a greater influence on the development of the square piano than Anglo-Irish inventor and instrument maker William Southwell. WILLIAM SOUTHWELL Inventor & Musical Instrument Maker
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