Regency John Broadwood Cabinet Piano

• Manner of .... / Style of ..... - A cataloguing term where the item, in the opinion of the cataloguer is a work in the style of the artist, craftsman or designer, possibly of a later period.
• Frieze - An architectural term denoting the flat, shaped or convex horizontal surface of furniture, between the architrave and the cornice, usually found on a cabinet or bookcase, or on desks and tables where it may include drawers, the area between the top and the legs. In ceramics, the term refers to the banding, of usually a repeating pattern, on the rims of plates and vases.
• Mahogany - Mahogany is a dense, close grained red-coloured timber from the West Indies and Central America. It was first imported into Europe in the the early 18th century and its use continued through the 19th century. It was popular for furniture making because of its strength, the wide boards available, the distinctive grain on some boards, termed flame mahogany and the rich warm colour of the timber when it was polished.. The "flame" was produced where a limb grew out from the trunk of the tree, and this timber was usually sliced into veneers for feature panels on doors, backs and cornices.
  
  Some terms used to describe mahogany relate to the country from which it originally came, such as "Cuban" mahogany, "Honduras" mahogany etc. However unless the wood has been tested the names assigned are more a selling feature, rather than a true indication of the timber's origin.
• Ivory - Ivory is a hard white material that comes from the tusks of elephants, mammoth, walrus and boar, or from the teeth of hippopotamus and whales. The ivory from the African elephant is the most prized source of ivory. Although the mammoth is extinct, tusks are still being unearthed in Russia and offered for sale.
  
  Ivory has been used since the earliest times as a material for sculpture of small items, both in Europe and the east, principally China and Japan.
  
  In Asia ivory has been carved for netsuke, seals, okimono, card cases, fan supports, animals and other figures and even as carved tusks.
  
  In the last 200 years in Europe ivory has been used to carve figures, for elaborate tankards, snuff boxes, cane handles, embroidery and sewing accessories, in jewellery and as inlay on furniture. Its more practical uses include being used for billiard balls, buttons, and a veneers on the top of piano keys.
  
  The use and trade of elephant ivory have become controversial because they have contributed to Due to the decline in elephant populations because of the trade in ivory, the Asian elephant was placed on Appendix One of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in 1975, and in January 1990, the African elephant was similarly listed. Under Appendix One, international trade in Asian or African elephant ivory between member countries is forbidden. Unlike trade in elephant tusks, trade in mammoth tusks is legal.
  
  Since the invention of plastics, there have been many attempts to create an artificial ivory
• Ebony - Ebony is a close grained timber, black in colour. It has a fine texture which can be polished to a high gloss, making it suitable for venereering, inlay and stringing and its use as solid timber is resticted to small decorative items and ornamental decoration, such as chess pieces and musical instrument parts. The term "ebonised" means "faux ebony", timber that has been darkened during the polishing process to resemble ebony.
• Foliate - Decorated with leaves or leaf-like forms.
• Ackermann, Rudolph - Rudolph Ackermann (1764 - 1834) was born in Saxony and is best known as a publisher of decorative coloured prints in London.
  
  His early career demonstrated an entrepreneurial bent that was to lead to his success as a businessman in London.
  
  At the age of 15 he was apprenticed to a saddler, and three years later moved to Dresden to train as a (horse-driven) carriage designer.
  
  He later lived in Switzerland, France and Belgium for short periods, before moving to London in 1787.
  
  He set up a successful business as a coach designer and decorator and in 1795 diversified his interest to include publishing and bookselling. His first decorative hand-coloured prints appeared in 1797. His output included political and social caricatures by leading artists of the day.
  
  From 1809-1829 he published "Ackermann's Repository of Arts", an illustrated annual British periodical which covered arts, literature, commerce, manufactures, fashions, and politics, and had great influence on English taste in fashion, architecture, and literature.
  
  His most ambitious venture was "The Microcosm of London". Which was completed in 1810 in collaboration with leading artists of the day, and contained 104 large folio hand-coloured aquatints.
  
  In the following years he published further volumes, again working with artists such as William Pyne, established branches of his business in several Central and South American cities, and set up a publishing business for his son, also called Rudolph, one of his nine children in Regent Street, London. This business was taken over by Rudolph Junior's son Arthur, and was later renamed Arthur Ackermann Ltd. and was trading as fine art dealers until 2011.
  
  His death in 1834 was preceded by a stroke in 1833 which left him partly paralysed.
• Rosewood - A dense timber that varies in shade to very light brown to almost black. When rosewood is cut and sanded the colour of the timber will turn black, and after polishing and exposure to daylight, the surface will gradually lighten over time to light brown with black streaks.
  
  The name comes from the odour emanating from the timber when it is planed, sanded or cut.
  
  Rosewood was very popular for use in Victorian furniture in the second half of the 19th century, and at that time most of the rosewood was imported from Brazil. However it also grows in India and Indonesia.
  
  It is used in the sold for chairs and table legs, but for carcase furniture such as side cabinets and bookcases, and for table tops it is always used as a veneer.
• Regency Period - The Regency period in English furniture design refers to the period when King George III, was declared unfit to rule in 1811, and his son ruled as proxy as Prince Regent, until 1820, and then, after the death of his father as George IV until his death in 1830. The Regency period was preceded by the Georgian period (George I, George II, and George III: 1714 - 1811), and was followed by the William IV period, which only lasted until 1837 when William IV died as was succeeded by Queen Victoria.
• George Iii - George III (1738 - 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820.

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• musical instruments - pianos 101