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Square piano
Also titled Tafelpiano
1773
- Medium
- ivory, mahogany (wood), iron (metal), ebony (wood), leather, brass (alloy)
- Classification
- musical instrument
- Dimensions
- height 76 cm x width 129 cm x depth 49 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- On loan from the Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
About this work
The grand piano, invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655–1731) in Florence around 1700, did not become popular until about 1785. The German Johannes Zumpe, working in London around 1763, was first to inspire general interest in this instrument. Charles Burney (1726–1814) wrote that Zumpe’s square pianos caught on because of ‘their low price, and the convenience of their form, as well as power of expression.’
