Stodart Robert, baptized 19 July 1748 Walston (Lanarkshire, Scotland), †10 March 1831 Edinburgh, English piano maker. He practiced in Dalkeith, Scotland, then moved to London, where around 1772 he was employed as a tuner by J. Broadwood. In 1773–1774, he lived in the house of harpsichord and piano maker A. Backers, where he also worked as a tuner. In 1774, he established his own piano manufacturing company in London. Together with Broadwood and A. Backers, he improved B. Cristofori’s hammer action in 1777, giving rise to the English action. In 1777 he also patented a double instrument combining a fortepiano and a harpsichord, equipped with a Venetian swell. One pedal engaged either the harpsichord or the piano mechanism, while another controlled the shutters; the instrument also had two hand-stops operating the 8-foot and 4-foot registers (one example survives in Washington). From around 1792, the workshop was run by his nephews, Matthew (*1758) and William (1762–1838), and the instruments were signed Robertus Stodart et Co. In 1795 William patented an upright ‘cabinet piano’, and in 1820 he introduced metal frame braces (invented by his employees J. Thoma and W. Allen) that stabilized the tuning of the instrument; the invention was exhibited at the Great Exhibition (London, 1851). In 1807, the company was granted the privilege of manufacturing instruments for the royal family and from then on signed its instruments Makers to Her Majesty and the Royal Family. Around 1797, Robert retired from running the company and moved to Edinburgh, where he died. In 1816, the company passed into the ownership of William, who from 1825 ran it with his son Malcolm (1794–1861) under the name William Stodart & Son; it ceased operations upon Malcolm’s death. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, Stodart was one of the leading and most innovative piano manufacturers in England, alongside Broadwood and Longman & Broderip. It built highly regarded and expensive grand, upright, and square pianos; approximately 30 examples have survived, mainly in Great Britain.
Literature: R.E.M. Harding The Piano-Forte. Its History Traced to the Great Exhibition of 1851, Cambridge 1933,21978; D. Wainwright Broadwood by Appointment: A History, London 1982; M.N. Clinkscale Makers of the Piano 1700–1820, Oxford 1993; L. Whitehead, J. Nex Keyboard Instrument Building in London and the Sun Insurance Records, 1775–87, „Early Music” XXX/1, 2002; M. Latcham Pianos and harpsichords for Their Majesties, “Early Music” XXXVI/3, 2008; Stodart Robert, “Boalch-Mould-Online”, https://boalch.org/instruments/makers.
