Leonard Joel receives thousands of emails every week but it is a rare one that relates to a beautiful feat of musical craftsmanship and an even rarer one that’s story tells of one of the female icons of Australian music history.
AN EBONIZED C. BECHSTEIN GRAND PIANO*
OF AUSTRALIAN MUSICAL INTEREST
Model A, serial number 45471,
circa 1898- 1902, 85 notes
$20,000-30,000
VIEW IN MELBOURNE
Chiara Curcio, Associate Head of Classic Furniture, Objects & Collectables, could not believe what she was reading when Judith Durham sought her advice about her personal piano; the very piano where Judith penned and created ‘Australia Land of Today’.
The Bechstein has been in Durham’s possession for some 45 years. She purchased the piano in Switzerland in 1973 and the piano followed her around the world until she resettled in Australia. The Bechstein was the special place where many songs were born and concert elements were rehearsed. When Judith bought her piano Ron Edgeworth, her late husband was purchasing his own Bechstein from Harrods. Now that Judith is selling her piano, it is her wish that a proportion of proceeds from the sale will go to the Motor Neurone Disease Association, for of which she has been National Patron since the death of her husband from the disease in 1994.
playing piano together, late 1970s
John Albrecht, Proprietor of Leonard Joel: “We are honoured to have been entrusted with this very special, not just musical instrument, but piece of Australian music and social history and even more excited that the public will have the opportunity to view first-hand a piano belonging to one of the Seekers”.
Chiara Curcio: “Researching this rare piano has taken on a whole new context for me given its relevance to Australian popular culture and in the process we learn more about this creative period for Australian music. I’m also touched that Judith has entrusted me to manage the marketing and sale of her piano and to find for Judith a new owner that will hopefully actively pursue the use of the piano for generations to come”.
Judith Durham: “Inspiring me since 1973 composing music and lyrics for my hundreds of inspirational songs, this beautiful, antique Bechstein Grand has a lightness of touch, which responds to every nuance of emotion”, says Judith Durham AO A.Mus.A. “I bought it in Lugano near where my darling late husband Ron Edgeworth and I lived in Switzerland. May its new owner experience my own joy of this piano through a lifetime.”
For further information please contact
Chiara Curcio
03 8825 5635 | chiara.curcio@leonardjoel.com.au