The Cobbe Collection of Keyboard Instruments with Composer Associations
Adopt an Instrument

The Cobbe Collection of historic keyboard instruments includes the largest group of instruments
owned or played by famous composers to be seen together anywhere in the world.

What is especially magical is that the collection is maintained in playing order to allow
artists and audiences to experience the sounds that inspired composers.

Adopt an Instrument

To Adopt an Instrument click here

Haydn's piano
Instrument 12: Haydn's piano,
Longman & Broderip.

Instrument 11: Detail of Grand
pianoforte by Crang Hancock.

Keeping instruments in playing order is an expensive business. This is partly why most museums do not attempt to do it. We feel that it is vital that the Cobbe Collection continues with this ideal. In 2010 our main support from a generous benefactor came to an end. For this reason we have drawn up a scheme. Adopt an Instrument invites you to underwrite the maintenance and tuning of a particular instrument for one or more years.

If you should decide to take part in this scheme, your adopted instrument will be displayed to the public with a notice stating that you have supported its maintenance.You will receive a complimentary pair of tickets to a concert of your choice (subject to availability). Your name will appear as the adopter of the instrument in the following published list of concerts and in the programme of any concert in which it is used.

The Chopin Society, London, has adopted the maintenance of Chopin’s Pleyel piano for the coming year.

The annual cost of maintaining each keyboard varies from instrument to instrument. This is partly dependent on intrinsic qualities of the instrument itself and also on the number of times it is used for concerts.

In addition to the maintenance costs, three of our instruments require major restoration, for which we urgently need support. These include the ‘1623’ early English harpsichord, which is currently in mid-restoration and requires £7,500 to complete; other instruments needing restoration are the Grand Piano by Erard Frères, Paris, 1819 (estimated at £20,000-30,000) and the square piano by Longman and Broderip, 1791 (estimated at £5,000-8,000).

To Adopt an Instrument click here

 

Chopin's Broadwood piano
Instrument 22 : Chopin's
Broadwood piano.


Instrument 2: Ruckers-Hemsch, 1636


 Detail of the Ruckers-Hemsch
soundboard decoration
   

Annual Maintenance Estimates

 
  1. Harpsichord attributed to Girolamo Zenti, Viterbo, c. 1622, the earliest instrument in the collection. £700
  2. Harpsichord by Andreas Ruckers, Antwerp, 1636, ravalement by Henri Hemsch, Paris. This instrument is the equivalent of a Stradivarius but more rare. £1000
  3. King Charles II’s Virginals, by John Player, London, 1664, maintained by Henry Purcell. £700
  4. Chamber Organ by John Snetzler, 1759, a maker patronised by Handel. £300
  5. Square Piano by Johannes Zumpe and Gabriel Buntebart, London, 1769, the earliest piano in the collection.
    Adopted by a private donor £300
  6. Johann Christian Bach’s piano - played by Mozart, Johannes Zumpe and Gabriel Buntebart, London, 1777-78, signed by Bach on the soundboard. £1400
  7. Clavichord by Christian Gotthelf Hoffmann, Ronneburg, 1784, a rare Saxon instrument such as J.S. Bach and his family would have used.
    Adopted by a private donor     £600
  8. Marie Antoinette’s Piano, Sébastien Erard, Paris, 1787. £1100
  9. Double Manual Harpsichord by Burkat Shudi and John Broadwood, London, 1787. £1100
  10. Grand Piano by a pupil of Johann Andreas Stein, a maker favoured by Mozart, c. 1790. £1200
  11. Grand Piano by Crang Hancock, London, c. 1790,
    ‘Warranted by Mr Dibdin’; its restoration was enabled by a generous grant from Baroness Thatcher. £600
  1. Haydn’s Piano Longman & Broderip, London, c. 1795. £2000
  2. Grand Piano by Longman & Broderip, London, c. 1795. £600
  3. Grand Piano by Anton Walter and Son, Vienna, c. 1815, maker patronised by Mozart and known by Schubert. £700
  4. Grand Piano by John Broadwood and Son, London 1816, used and signed by J.B. Cramer. £800
  5. Grand Piano by Conrad Graf, Vienna, c. 1819-20, one of only four Graf instrument with quadruple stringing, one of them Beethoven’s. £700
  6. George IV’s Grand Piano by Nanette Streicher, Vienna, 1823. On long-term loan from the Royal Collection. £1100

  7. Mahler’s Grand Piano by Conrad Graf, Vienna, c. 1836, acquired from the composer’s granddaughter. £700
  8. Elgar’s Piano by John Broadwood and Sons, London, 1844.
    Reserved for the Elgar Society £400
  9. Grand Piano by Erard, Paris, 1845, signed by Sigismond Thalberg. £400
  10. Chopin’s Pleyel, Paris, 1848.
    Adopted by the Chopin Society, London £2000

  11. Chopin’s Broadwood he used for his English concerts in 1848. £1100

  12. Bizet’s composing table Piano by Roller of Paris, 1855. £400
  13. Grand Piano by Steinway, New York, c. 1864. £900


Instrument 8 (left): Marie Antoinette's square pianoforte.
Instrument 3 (right): King Charles II Virginals detail.


© The Cobbe Collection Trust 2011