Gordon

Biography

Gordon was an eccentric Louisiana planter who, roughly a decade before 1826, had been a driver of a Broadway stage in New York. Upon the death of a Southern relative he unexpectedly inherited several large Southern plantations and a substantial fortune. Resentful that his new Southern neighbors regarded him as beneath them because of his former occupation, Gordon set out to outdo them in extravagance: he built a magnificent residence, furnished it lavishly, filled his stables with fine horses, and kept an orchestra for the entertainment of himself and his mostly Northern guests. In 1826 he commissioned Loud Brothers of Philadelphia, paying an extraordinary price, to build the most elaborate and remarkable pianoforte yet made in the United States. The result had a compass of seven and a half octaves, an unprecedented range, but was reportedly musically worthless; its case, however, was an elaborately painted cabinetry masterpiece that caused a sensation among New York and Philadelphia art and music circles.

Highlights

• Former driver of a Broadway stage in New York who inherited several Southern plantations and a fortune from a deceased Southern relative around 1816.
• In 1826 commissioned Loud Brothers of Philadelphia to build the most elaborate and expensive pianoforte made in the U.S. to that date -- an extravagant seven-and-a-half-octave grand -- to outdo Southern neighbors who snubbed him over his former occupation.

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 113, 114.

Public domain.