An ormolu mounted Viennese walnut fortepiano made by Anton Walter.
Six octave keyboard with 43 white bone-veneered and 30 black ebony-veneered/ebonised keys. A replaced wooden panel reading "Anton Walter & Sohn in Wien" above the keyboard, a further panel inscribed "Anton Walter fecit in Wien - 1790 - 1840 - Sauro Alberto Mancha restauro in Roma 1971" in the corpus over the strings. Restored in 1971. Not playable, in need of restoration. H 91.5, W 127, D 124.5 cm.
Anton Walter & Sohn, 1st quarter 19th C.
Gabriel Anton Walter (1752 - 1826) founded his piano manufactory in Vienna in 1778, and it was in existance until 1825. His instruments were used by all of the most important composers and pianists of the era, including Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven. In the year 1790 he was awarded the title of Royal and Imperial Chamber Organ and Instrument Maker. Walter worked alongside other Viennese piano makers such as Johann Michael Stein to develop the so-called "Vienna mechanism".
The most famous piano from his workshop was that played by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, now in possession of the Mozarteum. The composer supposedly wrote all of his Viennese piano concerts for this instrument, and thanks to its small size and lightness it could be transported to all of his concerts. Several of Anton Walter's pieces are now kept in museum collections, such as the Haydn Haus Museum in Eisenstadt, the Technisches Museum Vienna, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg and the Musikinstrumenten-Museum in Berlin.
Provenance
Formerly owned by Marchesa Margherita Taliani de Marchio, Arch Duchess of Austria-Tuscany and infantin of Spain (1894 - 1986), daughter of Arch Duke Leopold Salvator of Austria-Tuscany and the Blanca de Bourbon.