Piano
Category
Musical instruments, devices and recordings
Date
Unknown
Materials
rosewood
Measurements
1280 x 1260 x 600 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mr Straw's House, Nottinghamshire
NT 746392
Caption
The piano in the parlour is not the one the family first owned, the downstairs example having been given to William Jnr. by his landlady in London. This one was possibly moved upstairs as it’s lighter, being wood rather than metal framed. It has a beautiful rosewood finish and was made by the piano manufacturer W.A. Waddington, of York, in the 1880s. This would put Florence in her twenties, and we wonder if she perhaps returned from school with a new passion for the piano after her studies. The piano gave Florence freedom of a sort, as she was able to teach the playing of it, at a time when it was still relatively rare for a woman to independently forge a career of her own. Early Victorian women lost all of their money, physical belongings, and future earnings, as they were considered the property of the husband, the wife herself included.
Summary
Rosewood upright piano with two candle holders by Waddington's of York.