Raymond Russell Collection of Early
Keyboard Instruments

St Cecilia's Hall Museum of Instruments, Niddry Street, Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1 1LJ

Do you have a question about a keyboard instrument
you own or want to sell?

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The instruments in the Raymond Russell Collection cover the period 1580 to 1840, and this is the period in which the expertise of the staff at the Collection lies. We are an academic institution, and not experts in the commercial scene.

We get many requests for information, especially about nineteenth-and early twentieth-century pianos, and about their valuation, to which we are simply not able to respond in a way which is very helpful. This is not our field of expertise. Most pianos have a serial number and this gives and indication of their date. In order to date an instrument, and in order to find out more information about the maker of an instrument, please consult some of the following reference works.

• CLINKSCALE, Martha Novak, Makers of the Piano 1700-1820, (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993).


• COLT, C.F. and MIALL, Anthony, The Early Piano, (Stainer & Bell, London, 1981).


• DOLGE, Alfred, Pianos and their makers: a comprehensive history of the development of the piano from the monochord to the concert grand player piano, (Covina Publisching Co., Covina, Calif., 1911; Dover Publications, New York, 1972).


• EHRLICH, Cyril, The Piano: A History, (London, 1976; revised edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford & New York, 1990).


• GILL, Dominic (General Editor), The Book of the Piano, (Phaidon, Oxford, 1981).


• GOOD, Edwin M., Giraffes, Black Dragons, and Other Pianos. A Technological History from Cristofori to the Modern Concert Grand, (Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif., 1982).


• HARDING, Rosamund, The Pianoforte. Its History Traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1933; reprint, Da Capo, New York, 1973; second reprint, Unwin Brothers, Old Woking, 1978; third reprint, Heckscher & Co., London, 1989).


• PALMIERI, Robert, Piano Information Guide: An Aid to Research, (Garland, New York, 1989).
• PALMIERI, Robert, Editor, The Clavichord and Harpsichord, (Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, Volume 3), (Garland Press, New York, 1993).


• PALMIERI, Robert and PALMIERI, Margaret W., Editors, The Piano, (Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, Volume 1), (Garland Press, New York, 1993).


• RIPIN, Edwin M.; BELT, Philip R.; MEISEL, Maribel; ADLAM, Derek; et al, The Piano, (The New Grove Musical Instrument Series, London & Basingstoke, 1988).


• WAINWRIGHT, David, The Piano Makers, (London, 1982) and Broadwood by Appointment: a History, (Quiller Press, London, 1982).


• WOLFENDEN, Samuel, A Treatise on the Art of Pianoforte Construction, (Unwin Brothers, London and Woking, 1916; supplement, 1927; reprint, Gresham Press, Old Woking, 1975 and 1977; Gresham Press, Henley-on Thames, 1982).

For information on the serial number and dating of pianos:

• HERZOG, Hans Kurt, Europe Piano Atlas, Schriftenreihe "Das Musikinstrument", Vol. 2, (Bochinsky, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1984) and I. Piano-nummern deutscher, europäischer und überseeischer Instrumenten: Klaviere, Flügel, Cembali, Harmonien bis 1988 / Piano Serial Numbers of German, European and Foreign Instruments: Uprights, Grands, Harpsichords Harmoniums until 1988; II. 1400 Klavierbauer: 1600-1925 / Piano Makers, Schriftenreihe Das Musikinstrument, Heft 2, (E. Bochinsky, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1989).


• PIERCE, Robert W, Pierce Piano Atlas, (Pierce, Long Beach, 7th edition, 1977; 8/1982).

We cannot answer questions about the value of any instruments.

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This page updated: 13.7.04

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