Broadwood Grand Piano with a Rosewood Case and Gate Legs. Cabinet Inlaid with Swags, Bows and Musical Instruments

A 1903, Broadwood grand piano with a rosewood case and gate legs. Maker's name inlaid in wood on piano fall. Music desk in a fretwork waveform design featuring cut-out spheroids and three brass spindles. The two-pedal piano lyre features two square uprights ending in a meander motif. Cabinet inlaid with swags, bows and panels of musicl instruments. Musical instruments are suspended from bowed, fluttering ribbons, hung off swagged bellflowers. Entire cabinet features satinwood stringing accents. Piano has an eighty-five note keyboard.

John Broadwood & Sons
John Broadwood & Sons is an English piano manufacturer, founded in 1728 by Burkat Shudi and continued after his death in 1773 by John Broadwood. John Broadwood (1732–1812), a Scottish joiner and cabinetmaker, came to London in 1761 and began to work for the Swiss harpsichord manufacturer Burkat Shudi. He married Shudi's daughter eight years later and became a partner in the firm in 1770. As the popularity of the harpsichord declined, the firm concentrated on the manufacture of pianos, abandoning the harpsichord altogether in 1793. The firm's busiest time period was during the 1850s, when approximately 2,500 instruments were produced annually. Frédéric Chopin played Broadwood instruments in Britain, including at the last concert of his life given at Guildhall, London, in 1848.