Rufner Square Piano: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This square piano was made by Gottlob Emanuel Hüfner in Nürnberg, Germany around 1785-1795. It is a very unusual square piano, called a “pantalon” because of its two sets of hammers. The bare hammers are used to play loud passages, and the leather-covered ones for soft passages. This piano has a compass of FF-g3, Prell action without escapement, uncovered wood hammers, and an oak case.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1780-1800
• maker: Hüfner, Gottlob Emanuel
• Object Name: piano
• place made: Germany: Bavaria, Nuremberg
• ID Number: MI.332175
• catalog number: 332175
• accession number: 94056
• Credit Line: Hugo Worch
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.