Upright piano

Christian Friedrich Theodor Steinweg (1825-1889)
Braunschweig
around 1860
Städtisches Museum Braunschweig, inv. no. 0012-0137-00
Donated by Grotrian-Steinweg 1985

An upright piano is a vertical keyboard instrument with a hammer action. In German-speaking countries, today it is simply called a “Piano”. The soundboard, cast frame, strings and action are perpendicular to the floor, which saves space. The clavicytherium may have served as a model for the construction of the piano: an instrument whose strings are plucked with a keel, like a harpsichord, but whose body rises at a 90° angle to the keys, like a piano. 

The case of the exhibited piano is veneered with rosewood (‘Palisander’). It has a cast frame with a cross-string, two- and three-key action and was acquired by Anna Pförtner from Braunschweig for the Grotrian-Steinweg collection in 1911.