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The Nunns family and Nunns and Clark of New York
Robert & William Nunns Square Piano c1825 Serial # 558. Keyboard compass: 68 notes 5 1/2 octaves. Keyboard covering: Original ivory with boxwood moulded fronts and original ebony sharps. Cabinet: Crotch mahogany with rosewood stenciled nameboard. Has six turned and fluted legs with matching pedal leg. Has two sheet music drawers; brass molding around bottom of case with brass medallions at the corners. Mostly original finish. Dimensions: 67 1/2" x 26 1/2", 33" from top of case to floor. Action: All wood frame design with early English action with escapement. Overhead clothes pin style dampers with original wooden dust cover for the strings. Very elegant early piano with beautiful ornate stenciled nameboard in almost perfect condition. Beautiful legs with stamped brass collars at the tops on front four legs; back legs never had collars.
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William Nunns emigrated to New York in 1821 and he was joined by his elder brother Robert and his wife Eleanor and their three children who arrived in New York from London on the ship "Cincinnatus" in April 1822. Robert was described as a "merchant" and travelling with them were two of Robert's siblings, John & Mary. William had also travelled on the Cincinnatus and was similarly described as a merchant.
According to various sources the Nunns & Clark company was established in 1823 in New York City, the year Chickering (America's first piano company) was established. According to piano historian Edwin Goode (2001), "Nunns and Clark had the reputation for being among the best builders in New York, both for musical quality and for cabinetry." Historical sources of the history of the Nunns piano-makers are conflicting and this is reflected in the information below.
Nunns & Clark advertisement
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The Antique Piano Shop describes the firm as "one of the most illustrious and historical piano makers in American history were brothers Robert and William Nunns. Robert & Willian Nunns established their firm of R & W Nunns in 1823. The firm built pianos both under their own name and also for the prominent Dubois & Stodart Piano Company of New York City until 1836.
Both Robert and William are believed to have worked at the piano makers Kearsing & Sons before founding their own business.
William Nunns: In 1836, William Nunns went into a separate partnership with Augustus Brumley to create the Nunns & Brumley Piano Company, a venture that was very short lived. In 1839, William Nunns left the firm entirely to his brother Robert. In 1843, William Nunns went into partnership with John & Charles Fischer to create the Nunns & Fischer Piano Company. Nunns & Fischer built pianos until 1848 when William Nunns withdrew to establish his own firm of William Nunns & Company, which remained in business until 1853 when he retired.
Pianos by any of these names are exceedingly rare today and of museum caliber. They deserve the finest restoration and preservation available as they are irreplaceable parts of America’s musical history".
Nunns & Clark advertisement
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Robert Nunns: From 1832-1838, the name of the firm was changed to Nunns, Clark & Company when John Clark joined the firm. After 1838, the firm was known as Nunns & Clark. By the 1840’s, Nunns & Clark were so successful that they had 'warerooms' in several major cities in the United States. The Nunns & Clark firm enjoyed a superb reputation and great success until they closed around 1860.
Robert Nunns, his son Robert and his brother John Francis can be found in New York directories from the 1850s to the 1880s as either piano manufacturers or retailers, and tuners and are also recorded as Nunns & Clark at 785 Broadway & 96 East 26th Street with Robert Nunns junior being recorded in Brooklyn in 1881 and Madison City in 1883 as a piano tuner.
New York City Directory 1857
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A Henry Nunns is also in the business in Madison in 1883 and this is certainly Robert's son, born 1833, who had married his cousin, Mary Amelia Ennever. Mary was the daughter of Joseph Ennever, above, and therefore a cousin of the founder of the Ennever pianoforte business.
Nunns & Clark were among the first piano builders to incorporate cast iron frames to manage the string tension. An example was offered for sale recently and was described as "The case follows the simple design of Federal period furniture, yet has stunning crotch mahogany on the case and rosewood above the keys.
1830s Nunns & Clark Federal Style Forte Piano with 73 keys
Serial number 4744
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The original finish is very clean and the ivory key tops are in perfect condition. The key fronts are natural wood, with scalloped carvings. All the original parts are intact including the strings, action parts, and metal name plate over the keys. This piano received a very careful, museum quality restoration, retaining the original parts". They are also credited with the innovation of adopting Charles Sackmeister's SCALING with heavier STRINGING in 1827 .
Nunns & Clark's instruments were exhibited at New York's Crystal Palace in 1853 to great acclaim. In 1850 they had begun using Rudolph Kreter's machinery for covering " a whole set of hammer-heads at one operation" with graduated layers of felt.
Square Piano, 1853 Nunns and Clark, Maker; Robert Nunns, Maker; John Clark, Maker
New York
Various materials; L. of case perpendicular to keyboard 118 cm (46 1/2 in.); W. parallel to keyboard 223.3 cm (87 7/8 in.); total H. 95.9 cm (37 3/4 in.); D. of case without lid 37.4 cm (14 3/4 in.); 3-octave span 48.2 cm (19 in.); L. of longest string 173.3 cm (68 1/4 in.); L. of shortest string 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.); L. of c2 string 28.8 cm (11 3/8 in.)
Gift of George Lowther, 1906 (06.1312)
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art displays a "costly showpiece of Renaissance and Rococo Revival eclecticism, an obvious status symbol perhaps intended for display at New York's Crystal Palace exposition, elevated the reputation of the English immigrants Robert Nunns and John Clark, partners in New York since 1833; they had exhibited an equally ornate piano in London in 1851. Built on the scale of a billiard table, this massive rosewood instrument stands on elephantine legs surmounted by lush carved bouquets. Slips of mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and abalone embellish the seven-octave keyboard. Within, a lacquered iron frame reinforces the case. The felt-covered hammers could have been made by machines invented by Rudolph Kreter, who assigned his patent to Nunns & Clark in 1853. At that time, some eighty employees, including members of the Steinway family, were producing about three hundred instruments annually at Nunns & Clark's factory in Setauket, Long Island".
Nunns and Clark piano with a 6-octave keyboard (c1850-1875) at Campbell Mansion, Bethany College, Bethany W. Va. USA
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According to James Grebe "two brothers, John and Charles Fischer began working at the firm of R and W Nunns and Clark Piano company in 1840. Later it became Nunns & Fischer . In 1845 it began with serial number 2500. By the turn of the century about 500 pianos were made anually. At that time they were located in New York. After the turn of the century it was sold to the American Piano Company and later in 1932 by the Aeolian Corporation. It continued to be manufactured until 1982 with serial number 219400. It is hard to figure out how long it remained a unique piano unto itself rather than another one of Aeolian's pianos with a different leg style or different music rack design and slapping on a J & C Fischer decal on the fallboard."
Extract from the catalogue of The Great Exhibition. Nunns & Clark, New York.
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Along with Chickerings (America's first piano company) and Meyer, Nunns and Clark received a medal for their exhibit at The World's Fair (The Exhibition of the Industry of all the World) at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851 (also known as the "Great Exhibition").
Previously the Nunns and Clark factory, Setauket, Long Island. Photo c1900
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Known later as the "Upper" rubber factory, this factory building was located across from the current North Fork Bank at approximately 46 Route 25A in Setauket, Long Island, the area being known locally as "Chicken Hill".
Built c1845. Robert Nunns built this home at approximately 128 Main Street. By 1874 the house was owned by Phebe Ridgway. The house, which stood between the present Setauket School and the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library, was torn down c1954.
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The factory had been founded as the Nunns and Clark Piano Factory before the Civil War and it was later occupied by the local rubber company. The Civil War marked a down turn in sales and Robert Nunns became bankrupt in 1867, was forced to close the factory and to sell his home. His son-in-law James E Walker bought the home so that it could remain in the family.
Robert Nunns is known to have lived in Setauket from 1845 although it is probable the family home was in the area from much earlier.
Musical Instrument makers of New York by Nancy Groce
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Other sources record that Nunns & Clark were an extremely successful firm and that in 1855 the partners owned $150,000 of real capital, $15,000 of tools and had in stock 40,000 feet of pine and mahogany worth $20,000. The firm employed 80 men and 3 boys, who each earned $40 a month and who in that year produced 300 pianos worth $150,000. Spillane (1890:152-53) wrote that "while very much is written and spoken about Nunns & Clark, they have never been identified with any reforms and innovations in piano structure or acoustics after 1840. They simply made average pianos after stereotyped principles first produced by other makers, employed good men, paid good wages."
Musical Instrument makers of New York by Nancy Groce
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Nunns & Clark continued in business until 1860 although Clark is not listed after 1858. In the The American musical directory, 1861
by Barbara Owen Nunns was listed alone and described as a piano manufacturer with a factory at Setauket, Long Island. Other members of the Nunns family, William Jr, Robert Jr and John Francis worked in the trade as journeymen and piano dealers through the 1860s.
Willam Nunns' career was more uneven than that of his brother Robert. After heading R & W Nunns from 1823-32 and Nunns, Clark & Company from 1833-38, William and the piano tuner Augustus Brumley formed the firm Nunns & Brumley in 1836. In 1839, Nunns withdrew entirely from Nunns, Clark & Company and apparently left the city for several years.
"Pioneer Piano Maker Dead" New York Times 18/12/1907
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In 1843, Nunns joined the firm John & Charles Fischer, which was the reorganised as Nunns & Fischer. Their partnership lasted until 1848 when Nunns withdrew to head his own firm, William Nunns & Company, which remained in business until 1853. William Steinway wrote that as a young apprentice, "he had lost all his savings of $300 by the bankruptcy of his employer, William Nunns, in 1853." The following year Nunns retired from then trade, possibly moving to Setauket, Long Island, where he and his brother had established their factory many years before. At about the same time William Steinway founded Steinway & Sons.
William's ventures in piano manufacture included the development in 1847 of the "Melodicon", a piano with chromatic kettledrums. These efforts were ultimately less successful and contributed to his bankruptcy.
A Robert & William Nunns manufactured Square Piano c1825 Serial #730. Decal missing. Courtesy of Joseph Howell.
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In their obituary for William Clark in December 1907 The New York Times writes that the firm of Robert Nunns and Clark "built the first piano in the United States" and also records that William Clark had married Eliza, a relative of Robert's. I have not determined who Eliza is although it is probable this was Robert's eldest daughter, Elizabeth. William & Eliza had three children, Robert Nunns Clark, John Nunns Clark & Mrs Eleanor Nunns Clark all of whom survived their father. While the New York Times records William's father as John Clark, it remains unclear why they claim that it was William who formed the partnership with Robert Nunns and constructed the first piano in the United States.
A Robert Nunns, Clark & Co. Square Piano Serial #2371. Probably c1840s. Courtesy of Rosemary Frerking
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The piano shown above, the 1830s Federal style piano, was restored by Shaffer Pianos of Albany, New York and they have also recently fully restored the Empire style piano shown below right. You can hear Ron Shaffer playing this Empire piano on YouTube here.
There is good evidence that Chickerings had sold their first piano in 1823 while the date of the first Nunns piano is less clear so, while probably not the first, the Nunns brothers can certainly claim to have been 'one of the first' piano makers in the USA.
Nunns & Clark Empire Style square grand with 82 keys serial #8448. Probably 1845-50. Courtesy of Scaffer Pianos
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William Nunns was a man who was an inventor and while his main attention will certainly have been focused on his piano-forte business was nevertheless fascinated by other uses of the piano mechanisms as witnessed by the application to the US Patents Office for an 'Automaton Dancer'.
The US Patents Office patent from a William Nunns of New York was for an 'Automaton Dancer' using a piano-forte action and is dated 31st May 1864.
His invention consisted of a rising and falling platform connected to a vertically-sliding rod and operated by piano-forte action.
Patent No. 42,962 W. Nunns, Toy Dancer May 31, 1864
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The dancer was suspended over the platform and on touching the key the platform assumed a uniform rising and falling motion and was thrown in contact with the feet of the dancer (or other jointed figure).
Patent No. 42,962 W. Nunns, Toy Dancer May 31, 1864
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The dancer 'assumed a dancing motion of the most comical nature when the key was used repeatedly'.
A much earlier patent by Rudolph Krieter, assignor to Nunns & Clark and witnessed by Henry Nunns and S. H. Maynard, was devoted to improving the manufacturing process of what was identified as the 'most delicate, difficult and tedious parts', of piano-forte manufacture, that of covering of the hammers'. This patent was dated January 4th, 1853.
The 1891 UK census also records a Charles Nunn as a piano manufacturer in the St Pancras district of London, close to the Ennevers and in the heart of pianoforte manufacture in the UK, although no connection has been found to link him to the Nunns family above or to the Ennever piano makers.
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