[ Karl Ellison inquired in MMDigest 980802: ]

> I have received a request from a non-MMD person for information on
> their 1925 Lagonda  player, and can't find a reference for this brand
> in any reference, Internet or MMD archives. Can anyone shed light on
> this obscure instrument?  The Owner wanted to know if there was any
> known Internet web pages (only those for the Aston-Martin car comes up
> in searches) , and information.

I remember the Gunn name as there is a fine roll, "Juba Dance from
'In The Bottoms'" by Nathaniel Dett and played by Alexander Gunn.

To the Lagonda piano query, I offer the following from:

    http://www.btinternet.com/~colin.mallett/history.html#Origin

Origin and Early Days

The Company was started by an American, Wilbur Gunn, who had two main
interests, engineering and singing.  Although he had been apprenticed
to Singers in America, it was as an opera singer he came to Britain.
He built a steam yacht "Giralda" that won wagers as to which was the
fastest boat on the Thames, and eventually started to build motorcycles
in 1898 working from the greenhouse of his home at Staines, around
which the factory eventually grew.

The name Lagonda was the Shawnee Indian name for what is now Buck Creek
in Gunn's native Springfield, Ohio.  The Gunns had lived in Springfield
since the middle of the nineteenth century, Wilbur being born in 1859,
and Wilbur's father was a founder of the Lagonda Corporation that made
tube cleaning machinery.

The motorbikes were successful, so much so that a Lagonda represented
Great Britain in the International Cup races held in the interval
between the Paris-Madrid and the first TT.  With the addition of A H
Cranmer to the firm in 1904, he progressed to three wheeled forecars
and these grew to have twin cylinder water cooled engines of about 1200
cc by 1905 and later, wheel steering as well.

About seventy forecars were built, of which three survive.  No motor-
bikes are known to have survived although one was in existence in 1930,
but has not been heard of since.  A H Cranmer stayed with the firm as
Technical Director until 1935 and was still alive, at the age of 85,
in 1956.

Karl Petersen
Meridian, Idaho