Illus. 292.—Piano, 1826.
The front legs are elaborately carved like table bases, and the three pedals have a support that is a cross between a lyre and a wreath. The keyboard has six octaves, and the music-rack is very simple.
Illustration [293] shows two piano-stools made between 1825 and 1830. The stool with four fluted legs was sold with a piano made by Wood, Small, & Co., of London, which has six legs fluted in the same manner. The other stool has a base like the claw-and-pillar table, and the sides of the seat are carved dolphins, whose tails turn up and support a carved rail to form a low back for the seat. This stool belongs to the writer.
Illus. 293.—Piano-stools, 1825-1830.
The “table piano” in Illustration [294] is marked as being made by John Charters, Xenia, Ohio, which alone would attract attention, aside from the curious construction of the base, which places the date of the piano about 1835. The pedals are quite concealed as one stands by this piano, and the whole design is clumsy and poor. The music-rack seems to have remained unchanged for many years, and from the earliest piano shown, made in 1800, until the large square piano of 1840, the music-rack is the same, simply constructed of four pieces of wood which are put together with pivots, so that by pushing one end of the top piece they all slide and fold down together, in order that the piano may be closed.
Illus. 294.—Table Piano, about 1835.