Broadwoods and other leading piano houses began to establish a pattern of service which was quickly followed by the smaller businesses when they could afford to do so.
Piano ownership now was common outside London, and Broadwood started to supply piano dealers up and down the country with their instruments, and occasionally with their trained tuners. The best tuners were kept in London, catering for the needs of the firm’s most important patrons, but the tuners who chose to leave the firm after their apprenticeships had been completed were able to maintain links with their alma mater by going to work for one of their provincial dealerships. These provincial dealers were carefully nurtured by Broadwoods: James Shudi Broadwood wrote to his son, Henry, in September 1838, stressing the importance of having ready-made stock available for retailers at short-notice:
… these instruments kept in order and as ready to be sent off as those in Purdies, Beales, or any other music shops, so that no retail friend should wait a moment.
It is with these ‘retail friends’ that the one-time apprentices found positions, sometimes going on to become independent, and perhaps even opening shops of their own. These men used their links with their old firms to add an air of borrowed respectability to their advertisements: the remnant of a tuner’s business card (which had been cut up to pack up a balance rail to the requisite height!) dating from around 1840 seems to advertise the services of a Mr J. England ‘late of Messrs Broadwood’s, London’ as a ‘pianoforte maker, tuner &c.’ around the Bristol area. The reverse of the section of card mentions him ‘visiting Swansea … and repairing pianos … with sufficient encouragement … of the journey …’ Other remaining words would seem to imply that ‘[prices] of tuning out of the [area depend upon] the number of instruments and [the distance] from the town’.
Another later example of advertising professional pedigree is an advertisement from around 1890 painted on wood and framed, which reads as follows:
Established 18 Years
E. Gowland and Son
(from Messrs J. & J. Hopkinsons)
Pianoforte Tuners
Repairers and Dealers
Visits this Neighbourhood Regularly
Orders left Here will Receive Prompt Attention
This advertisement would probably have been displayed in a local shop and the shopkeeper would have arranged the appointments – for a small consideration, no doubt, since he was acting as the tuner’s agent.
From: Gill Green MA
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