Robert Wornum (1780–1852) was a piano maker working in London during the first half of the 19th century. He is best known for introducing small cottage and oblique uprights and an action considered to be the predecessor of the modern upright actionDavid Crombie Piano GPI Books, San Francisco. 1995. p.105 which was used in Europe through the early 20th century. His piano manufacturing business eventually became Robert Wornum & Sons and continued half a century after his death.
Art historian Ralph Nicholson Wornum (1812–1877) was his son.
Early life and career Robert Wornum was born on 1 October 1780, son of music seller and violin maker Robert Wornum (1742–1815), who worked at Glasshouse street, London, and after about 1777, at 42 Wigmore Street, near Cavendish Square.The Musical Directory for 1794 p. 71, quoted in William Sandys and Simon A. Forster, The History of the Violin William Reeves, London, 1864. p. 283 Piano historian Alfred J. Hipkins wrote the younger Wornum was originally intended for the church,Alfred J. Hipkins "Robert Wornum" A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol.4. Macmillan & Co., London. 1890. p. 489 but by 1810 had the position of foreman at music sellers Wilkinson & Company at 3 Great Windmill Street and 13 Haymarket.
Wilkinson & Co. were successors to Broderip & Wilkinson, a partnership between Francis Broderip and George Wilkinson which had formed in 1798 following the failure of Longman & Broderip. Wilkinson & Co. was organized following Broderip's death in 1807.Kidson identified Wilkinson's partner as organist Robert instead of Francis Broderip, who is listed in the firm's co-partnership notices in the London Gazette - Frank Kidson "Broderip and Wilkinson" British Music Publishers W. E. Hill and Sons, London. 1900 pp. 18-19 According to the family history recorded by Wilkinson's son Henry Broadhurst Wilkinson, the firm had arranged to have tall cabinet upright pianos manufactured for them by Astor and "Leukenfeld" by license under William Southwell's patent. Southwell, who was said to have made the first cabinet upright in 1790,Thomas Busby, Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes of Music and Musicians, Ancient and Modern vol. III, Clementi & Co., London 1825 p. 206In a promotional pamphlet published for the 1862 International Exhibition, based upon notes by him dated 1838, Broadwood and Sons claimed that James Shudi Broadwood had given the idea of the cabinet upright to Southwell in the form of a sketch in 1804. described that it was "so constructed as to prevent the possibility of its being so frequently out of tune", and without "any opening or perforation between the sound-board and the pin block", although his 1807 patent only claimed a new arrangement of its dampers. The Monthly Magazine reported in May, 1808 that Wilkinson & Co. offered to the public "a New Patent, Cabinet Piano-forte", and described that its form was "as curious as convenient," occupying no more room than the smallest bookcase, while its tone was both brilliant and delicate, its touch "peculiarly facile and pleasant" and claimed the strength and simplicity of its construction would tend "to ensure its keeping in tune longer than most other instruments."The Monthly Magazine vol.XXV part 1, no.4 1 May 1808 p. 342 The Quarterly Musical Register described in early 1812 that by then these instruments were manufactured by other firms as well, and commented "whether they will be adopted as preferable to the square piano forte, time must shew."Retrospect of the State of Music in Great Britain, since the Year 1789. The Quarterly Musical Register, January 1812 p. 26 Wornum's son Alfred later claimed that these instruments were unsuccessful for a timeA. J. Hipkins, "Cabinet Piano" A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol.I MacMillan and Co., London 1890 p.290 and Broadhurst Wilkinson related that the firm had been obliged to furnish replacements under warrantee when the instruments sold by them were found not to "stand well." By mid-1809, however, the firm advertised that owing to "the great increase of their manufactory of pianos" they had determined to close down their other musical enterprises, and had reduced their entire stock of music to half price and offered favorable terms on all instruments out on hire.advertisement. The Times London, 22 August 1809. p. 1
Wilkinson & Wornum and the Unique upright
In 1810, according to Broadhurst Wilkinson, Wilkinson borrowed £12,000 ($53,000)the average exchange being given as 40 dollars to 9 pounds sterling; "Exchange - The United States of America" C. T. Watkins A Portable Cyclopaedia Richard Phillips, London 1810 to form a partnership with Wornum, and leased houses at 315 Oxford street and Princes street, adjoining Hanover Square, for warerooms, factory and residences, with the yard behind 11 Princes street used for seasoning lumber.Henry Broadhurst Wilkinson. Souvenir of the Broadhurst Wilkinsons Manchester. 1902. pp. 24-27
In 1811 Wornum patented a small bichord upright standing about three feet three inches tall (99 cm) styled the "unique".Piano-forte Penny Cyclopaedia vol.18. Charles Knight & Co. London, 1840. pp. 141-142 Its strings were stretched diagonally from the top to the right side of the case and communicated with a small sounding board, and the case itself was divided in half with separate parts containing the action and keyboard, and strings and frame.Robert Wornum, "An Improvement in the piano forte." No. 3419, 26 March 1811 Abridgments of Specifications relating to Music and Musical Instruments. A. D. 1694-1866 second edition. Office of the Commissioners of Patents for Inventions, London 1871 p. 66 Wornum's escapement worked directly upon a padded notch on the hammer butt and in this way could omit the intermediate lever used in many square pianos and Southwell's cabinet uprights,Rosamond Harding, The Piano-Forte Gresham Books, Old Woking, Surrey. 1977. p. 226 and the hammer was returned to its resting position by a spring fixed to the hammer rail instead of by its own weight or that of the sticker. Like Southwell, Wornum used overdampers that pressed against the strings above the hammers and were mounted on levers hinged from a separate rail, but the wires that raised them were to be acted upon by the backward oriented base of the escapement instead of by the sticker or the hammer.Harding p. 230 Wornum also claimed a buff stop, operated by the left pedal which muted one of the strings of each note.piano collector C. F. Colt claimed this was a device to aid in tuning because the arrangement of the action prevented the strings to be muted off in the ordinary manner. C. F. Colt. The Early Piano Stainer & Bell, London. 1981 p. 58, 118 Two articles published in 1851 indicate that the firm built several hundred of these pianos.Musical Instruments in the Great Exhibition London Journal of Arts, Sciences and Manufactures vol.39 no. 235 conjoined series, W. Newton, London. 1852 pp. 38-39"Fétis, der Vater", über die Londoner Ausstellung Neue Berliner Musikzeitung, 5th year, no. 44, October 1851 p. 347
One of the firm's cabinet uprights was illustrated in the February 1812 issue of The Repository of Arts under the heading "Fashionable Furniture", with the explanation that these had become a much requested item due to their improvements which "procured this instrument a very high degree of reputation". The brief note described that they ranged from six feet to seven feet two inches high (183 to 218 cm) and were available in mahogany as well as rosewood with brass, and praised their "unrivalled" touch and the suitability of their tone—particularly of the instruments with two strings per note—for accompanying voice."Messrs. Wilkinson & Wornum's Upright Patent Pianaforte"[sic] Plate 10. Fashionable Furniture The Repository of Arts February 1812 vol.7 no.38 p. 111
Wilkinson & Wornum's Oxford street facilities were destroyed by fire in October 1812. The proprietors quickly announced that the greater part of their finished stock had been saved, in part by their neighbors and other volunteers,"To the Public - Dreadful Fire!" The Times 13 October 1812 p. 2 and was ready for sale at 11 Princes street only a few days afterwards,advertisement The Times 16 October 1812 p. 1 but a collection was started for their upwards of seventy workmen who had lost all of their tools and were unable to return to work.advertisement The Times 27 October 1812 p. 1 At a meeting of the firm's creditors in November, Wilkinson's father, Charles Wilkinson, agreed not to make a claim against them and guaranteed payment to the other creditors, and in early 1813 he forgave what the partners owed him. Wilkinson & Wornum was dissolved on 3 March 1813.The London Gazette 6 March 1813 p.489 Wilkinson established his own piano factory behind his new house at 32 Howland street, and Wornum, possibly having sold his patent to music seller John Watlen, of Leicester place,advertisement The Times 11 November 1812 p. 1; John Watlen was a composer, music seller and tuner, whose business at Edinburgh had failed 1798, and had set up on his own in London by 1807. By 1811 he advertised he had sold over 1,000 pianos, and offered newly patented six octave oblique pianos, "having superiority over all others, being only 19 inches deep", priced from 45 to as much as 80 guineas ($210 to $375) which he later indicated he "always had the advantage of the inventor of the above to superintend his manufactory", and his advertisements published after the date of the fire at Oxford street state "the Patentee informs the Public, Merchants..., &c. that the Oblique cannot be had anywhere else but at his house". Watlen's piano manufactory failed in 1827; his son Alexander Watlen later manufactured pianos in partnership with William Challen. - Frank Kidson "John Watlen" Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol.5, The MacMillan Company, New York 1911. p.438; advertisement The Times 5 September 1811, p. 1; advertisement The Times 11 November 1812; advertisement The Times 15 August 1815, p. 1; advertisement The Times 28 February 1823 p. 1; George Elwick The Bankrupt Directory...December 1820 to April 1843 Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., London, 1843. p. 433; The London Gazette 6 June 1837 p. 1537 removed to 42 Wigmore street.two early pianos also bear the nearby address 3 Welbeck street, by 1817 occupied by booksellers C. and J. Ollier - Arthur W. J. Ord-Hume "Robert Wornum" Encyclopedia of the Piano Taylor & Francis, London. 2006 p. 427
Harmonic uprights and equal tension