Please join us to celebrate the restoration and reframing of our glorious carved Terlecki timber piano front.

This piano front was donated to us by Keith Kilner representing his wider family and the recent restoration was paid for with a donation from the Boak family. We are enormously grateful to both families for their generosity.

We’ll be celebrating in style with a sparkling morning tea at the RHSV premises, 239 A’Beckett St and we’ll be hosting members of both the Kilner and Boak families.

A tiny bit of background …

In 1862 Joseph Kilner (piano maker) and Joseph Wilkie (piano tuner), opened a music and piano saloon at 15 Collins Street in Melbourne Australia and in 1863 established a factory at 174 Queen Street to construct pianos. Driven by Kilner, the firm soon began experimenting with using Australian blackwood and red gum but also managed to incorporate other local timbers including kauri, myrtle, sassafras, Queensland pine and huon pine in their instruments.

Wilkie, Kilner and Company pianos won major prizes at home and abroad including a silver medal for best entry in its class at the Centennial International Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876 for an upright wooden-framed instrument that had a front panel intricately carved with Australian plants and animals, plus the words ‘Advance Australia’ beneath a rising sun, – reminiscent of the Rising Sun badge proudly worn by soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Australian Imperial Force in both World Wars (this is ‘our’ piano front).

The elaborate front was carved by Polish immigrant, Felix Terlecki, who also produced some of the finest ornamental wood-carvings found in Melbourne’s colonial churches, banks etc

HOUSEKEEPING

• The Gallery Downstairs where this event will be held is fully accessible.
• There will be no Zoom for this event.
• Please RSVP, although the event is free, we do need to know numbers for catering and seating.
• When you RSVP you will be sent an automatically-generated email of confirmation – if this email doesn’t pop up in your in-box, please check your Spam or Junk mail folders.
• Those who RSVP do not need to bring a ticket on the day – your names will be at the door.