When this song became popular back in the 1960s I always thought that the object was supposed to be one of those thing-a-me-bobs that some old auntie had left the family. A piece of furniture, very ugly, very old and ornate, and totally usless, because everyone had forgotten what it was for. It's a very British idea that. When the song got into school music books the illustrator drew a piano. I thought it showed a lack of imagination. Here anyone who went to school after about 1970 thinks the object is a piano. I still don't think it's a piano. Joy