Piano
Dated 1905
At the base of the winding staircase leading upstairs is nestled a Bechstein miniature grand piano. It measures approximately 1 metre in height, 1.73 metres in length and 1.39 metres in width. The piano is a rich reddish chocolate brown, encased in solid mahogany wood, with the distinctive shape of a grand piano, albeit smaller in size. Facing the piano, as if you are sitting at it, about to play, the left-hand edge is long and straight before curving at its rear. It then curves inwards on the right-hand side before straightening once more towards the piano’s front. At the front where the keys are located, the lid of the piano remains shut as does the hinged piece of wood that covers the keys.
In front of the piano is a piano bench, also made from mahogany, measuring 56 centimetres in height, and 1.17 metres in length and 36.5 centimetres in width. The seat of the bench is woven with rattan in an intricate grid-like pattern, cream in colour representative of the natural palm strands from which it is made. On either end of the stool are handles, also made of mahogany wood fashioned to provide ease of movement or carriage of the bench. Two red velvet ribbons are tied to these handles and stretch across and above the surface of the bench as a means to prevent visitors from sitting upon the bench and to protect the delicate rattan surface below.
The sound of music and musical performance was a daily occurrence in this House during its time as a Vice-Regal residence (1862–1910). By the 1860s, owning a piano was an important marker of upper-class respectability.
In 1905, Lord and Lady Chelmsford, both accomplished musicians, took up residence at Old Government House. The House’s 15-year-old Steinway Grand piano, was judged to be 'fit only for practice' not performance and Lady Chelmsford ordered a new piano from the Heindorff Brothers Catalogue. In August 1906, this Bechstein Miniature Grand piano, with a solid mahogany case suitable for the local sub-tropical climate, arrived from London and was installed in the Drawing Room. The old Steinway Grand was carried, by six men, upstairs to the schoolroom.
In June 1910, when the Governor moved out of this House, the Bechstein and its accompanying piano stool, along with the rest of this House’s furniture, was packed up and moved to Fernberg, Government House, in Paddington. Sometime later, the piano, no longer in use, was moved to the basement of Fernberg where it languished. Re-discovered and restored by the National Trust of Queensland in 1985, the piano, now known as Lady Chelmsford’s Bechstein, was returned to this House.
During a research visit to Fernberg, Government House in 2009, the Curator of Old Government House spotted the piano stool in a bedroom. Once identified, the stool was then taken out of service and put on display. In November 2021, His Excellency the Governor Paul de Jersey, knowing the story of the long separation of the two items, kindly and formally returned the piano stool to Old Government House in his final week as Governor. After almost a century apart, the pair are together once again.