MICHAEL COLE         www.squarepianos.com

    ADAM BEYER        BROADWOOD          JOHannes ZUMPE                Contact us 

REVISED  JULY 2009  

LONGMAN & BRODERIP 

with information on Longman & Lukey,      Broderip & Wilkinson

Muzio Clementi & Co., and Collard & Collard

When James Longman set up as a music seller in 1767 the pianoforte was just coming into fashion. Although he did not necessarily intend it initially, piano manufacture was to be the thing for which his company became internationally famous.

Longman, originally from Somerset, took over the shop formerly run by John Johnson. His business was located by the sign of the Harp & Crown, at No. 26 Cheapside, which was then the most prestigious shopping street in London, though since eclipsed by Oxford Street and Bond Street. (It was not until Michaelmas 1782 that a second address was acquired, at 13 Haymarket, near the opera house.) From 1769 James Longman's business partner was Charles Lukey. A square piano bearing the inscription Longman, Lukey & Co, Musical Instrument Makers, 26 Cheapside, London (dated 1770) is preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass. In appearance and specification it is indistinguishable from the work of Zumpe & Buntebart,  then the most important makers of square pianos. Unfortunately this piano has been severely compromised by an ill-advised restoration, carried out before the museum acquired it, which leaves little to confirm whether it was in fact supplied by Zumpe & Buntebart, or was merely a very careful copy of their work.

In 1773 the business gained a new name when Francis Broderip joined them, presumably bringing more capital into the business. The instruments and other wares were then marked as being from Longman, Lukey, and Broderip, but this lasted for only three years because Lukey died in 1776. Thereafter the business traded for twenty years under the title most frequently encountered: Longman & Broderip. Square pianos remained a very important part of their sales throughout the 1770s, and the variety among those that survive suggests that they were probably commissioned from several originating makers. Nevertheless, they are all of standard English design with the so-called 'single action' of Zumpe. One of their suppliers has been confirmed by the researches of Jenny Nex as being Christopher Ganer, whose workshop was in Broad Street. He received payments for various sums during the late 1770s and early 80s. Thomas Culliford, making harpsichords and spinets for sale in Longman & Broderip's shop, worked with a number of other craftsmen in Fountain Court, just off Cheapside, to the south, and from other larger premises in subsequent years.

Longman & Broderip's merchandise included every variety of musical instrument, as well as printed music originated by themselves or sourced from other music publishers throughout Europe. But keyboard instruments were their most prestigious and lucrative line, and as the pianoforte increased in popularity so did their profits. A quantum leap occurred in the mid 1780s when organ builder John Geib, living in Southampton Row, near Bedford Square (but originally from Staudernheim in the Rhineland Palatinate), secured patent rights for an improved type of square piano with an escapement action. Subtlety of touch gained much from this innovation, making possible a more refined expressivity, previously obtainable only on grand pianos. James Longman and his partner were very impressed and signed an exclusive contract with Geib. Typical specimens dating from the mid 1780s have an escapement lever closely resembling one of the three designs shown in Geib's patent drawing.  [Click to see this early action]  Shown below is piano No. 1025, believed to date from 1786.

This shows the extraordinary high quality of the cabinet work on some of these first 'patent' squares. The principal timber is dense, high grade Cuban or San Domingo mahogany (from Haiti), bordered with Central American satinwood. The name-board is inlaid with exquisitely executed arabesques similar to those found in Robert Adam's book of classical designs. The quality of this work is very impressive. Inside there is a green silk-covered 'dustboard', concealing most of the working parts, and four hand-operated stops. Three at the left work the divided dampers and a harp or 'buff' stop. The fourth, at the right, presses small pads of buff leather against one of each pair of unison strings. This appears to have been intended solely as an aid to tuning, making it possible to go through one set of strings and afterwards tune the unisons, as players would be accustomed to do on their harpsichords. As an una corda stop it is not as satisfactory as the true una corda found on early English grands in which the keyboard shift  provides that only one string is touched by the hammer while the unisons are free to add sympathetic vibration.

Most square pianos sold by Longman & Broderip were not so elaborate, and some did not have escapement ― these remained the basic square pianos presumably sold at a lower price. Both kinds were manufactured in new dedicated workshops where Thomas Culliford and his team produced hundreds of instruments annually, and developed further improvements for them. The escapement mechanism went through several stages of  refinement leading, around 1788, to a design which became so successful that it was universally known, to nineteenth century piano-makers, as 'English action' for square pianos ― copied not only in London (after the patent had expired) but also in America and Germany, and adapted for upright pianos too. The most common form of this  is shown in the drawing below.   

With these refined square pianos Longman & Broderip were for some years the premier manufacturers in Europe, and their shops in Cheapside and Haymarket became an essential call for all musical visitors to London. Most of the pianos, though plainer than the one above, are given at least a little decorative inlay on the nameboard (see below), and generally have the usual three hand stops, though some have only two. Some have a pedal to raise and lower part of the lid (the so-called 'swell'). A new fashion becomes apparent around 1790 when many of the pianos have hand-painted decoration on the nameboard, featuring either laurel wreaths or floral garlands featuring roses, sweet peas and eglantine. 

                                The most common form of nameboard embellishment, c.1788-93 ― inlaid floral swags, and enamel plaque.

No. 1081, with swell pedal and original hand painted embellishments above the keyboard.

Never willing to be outdone when further inventions came to light, James Longman bought the rights to another important patent in 1794. The originator of this was William Southwell, originally from Dublin, whose patent included the first adjustable, wire-operated dampers (sometimes called 'dolly dampers', and otherwise 'Irish dampers'). These, being virtually silent in operation, were a great improvement on the old, Zumpe-style, lever over dampers. Southwell's  'Irish dampers' led directly to those used in modern grand pianos. But his best remembered innovation was a novel way of making a keyboard extension upwards to 5½ octaves by passing eight 'additional' notes (f to c) under the soundboard, from where the hammers appear to jump up through a slot at the back. This patent design was eventually to become ubiquitous, but for the time being Longman & Broderip held exclusive rights to it, with Southwell content with the prospect of half a guinea on every such piano made and sold in England. 

However, in the mid 1790s things were starting to go wrong, not with the pianos but with the company finances. War with republican France disrupted trade with Europe, creating many economic difficulties. Longman & Broderip were heavily in debt having borrowed large sums in earlier years to finance their expansion, and now creditors wanted to call in their loans. It soon became evident that everyone who had worked for Longman & Broderip, or who had provided funds for their business expansion, had the greatest difficulty in getting any money from them. The extent of their debts, amounting to thousands of pounds, were soon to become public knowledge when legal actions were brought by some of the aggrieved parties. Eventually, in 1795 both partners were declared bankrupt. But rather than fleeing to France in time-honoured fashion they went into the debtors' prison.  There are in existence square pianos fitted with enamel plaques showing 'Longman & Broderip', with the date 1796, but clearly these plaques must have been commissioned before their fall from grace, and the workshop used them regardless. Their business empire was so vast, and its prospects so good, that a consortium led by Muzio Clementi bought out the interest and presumably paid off some of the debts. From 1798 square pianos appeared bearing the new  company name Longman, Clementi & Company. These were significantly better still, because they combined a five-and-a-half octave keyboard with the escapement action, and a pedal to obtain the sustaining tone. For many of these design improvements they were indebted to William Southwell. His other improvements included a larger soundboard and a lighter, more flexible bridge. He was also the originator of the open fretwork at either side of the nameboard (see below) backed with brightly coloured silk, and similar open panels behind the wrestplank. The tone of these early Clementi square pianos was better than anything heard before, and in well-restored specimens remains as delightful as ever.

A Clementi & Co. square piano of typical appearance c.1804. Unusually this one was never fitted with a pedal

After just over a year in prison James Longman and Francis Broderip were released.  Broderip formed a new company with Charles Wilkinson, trading from 13 Haymarket. Pianos sold by Broderip & Wilkinson have exactly the same technical specification as those marked Longman, Clementi & Co, and are similar externally, the only difference being that they are usually plainer above the keyboard and the ivory key plates are often compromised for quality. John Geib meantime emigrated to America, where he set up a new business in lower Manhattan, which prospered in the new century as John Geib & Sons of New York.

Back in London, James Longman was pursued by more creditors and was again in the Fleet prison in 1803 where he died in November that year. The business empire he had lost now traded under the name Muzio Clementi & Co . The Longman name lived on for some years as John Longman,  James' brother, started another company trading from 131 Cheapside from 1801 until about 1816, and after that under the name Longman & Heron. Francis Broderip died in 1807, but the piano-making business was continued by Wilkinson, with various associates, including Robert Wornum, now remembered chiefly for improvements to the actions of upright pianos. 

When Clementi died in 1832, the business named after him was continued by his foreman Frederick Collard. The firm of Collard & Collard (the brothers Frederick and William) continued manufacturing pianos until about 1860, but as the piano industry contracted in the late nineteenth century the business was sold, and the name disappeared as it was amalgamated with other firms producing standard trade upright pianos.

For more information on the subjects mentioned on this web page see The Pianoforte in the Classical Era by Michael Cole, published by Oxford University Press, 1998.

A very informative examination of the legal proceedings surrounding James Longman's dubious business dealings, and the unfortunate William Southwell's entanglement with him, has now been published in the Royal Musical Association's Research Chronicle No. 42, ISSN 1472-3808. This fascinating paper jointly written by George S. Bozarth & Margaret Debenham is titled Piano Wars: The Legal Machinations of London Pianoforte Makers 1795-1806, and covers court cases involving Longman & Broderip, Thomas Culliford, John & James Broadwood, and Augustus Leukfeld: highly recommended.