List of Keyboards
Square Piano by Babcock, A
This square piano was made by Alpheus Babcock for R. Mackay in Boston, Massachusetts around 1825-1829. Babcock learned his trade from Benjamin Crehore, Boston’s first piano maker. This piano is serial number 295 and has a compass of FF-f4, an English double action, divided at c#3, basswood core leather hammers, double-strings throughout, 2 pedals: dampers and harmonic swell, wood frame, and a mahogany and rosewood veneered case
Credit: Smithsonian
Square Piano by Babcock, A
This square piano was made by Alpheus Babcock, for R. Mackay, in Boston, Massachusetts around 1825-1829. During the 1820s, Babcock was financed largely by the Mackay family, and names such as G. (George) D. Mackay and R. (Ruth) Mackay are common on Babcock’s name boards at that time. This piano is serial number 317 and has a compass of FF-c4, an English double action with escapement, basswood core leather hammers, double-strings throughout, 1 pedal: dampers (missing), wood frame, and a mahogany and rosewood veneered case.
Credit: Smithsonian
Square Piano by Babcock, A
This square piano was made by Alpheus Babcock for John G. Klemm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around 1829-1832. Babcock worked for Klemm in Philadelphia from 1829-1832. It has been suggested that, because the serial number of this piano suggests a date before Babcock left Boston, he might have made this piano for Klemm before 1829. The piano is serial number 283, and has a compass of FF-c4, an English double action, leather-covered hammers, plain iron strings, FF-A# are iron wound and double-strung, with pins at rear, 2 pedals: damper and harmonic swell, a wood frame with a mahogany and rosewood veneered case.
Credit: Smithsonian
Square Piano by Babcock, Appleton & Babcock
Technical description: This square piano has a rectangular body with stained mahogany veneer and six screw-on reeded legs, four in the front and two in the rear. The keyboard is to the left of the center of the instrument and there are the compass is five and a half octaves (FF-c4) with ivory topped natural keys and ebony accidentals. Three drawers (2 small ones on either side of a larger in-curved drawer) below the keyboard have floral wreath, brass mounts and pulls. A single pedal lefts all of the dampers. In the center of the nameboard is written "Babcock, Appleton, & Babcock / Boston" with a cornucopia on either side. At the ends of the nameboard are floral openwork designs. The lid is supported by a single prop stick that is connected to the folding music desk. Credit: Met Museum
Grand Piano by Backers, A
The oldest surviving English grand piano, built in London by renowned piano maker Americus Backers in 1772, on display at Apsley House in London, the home of its former owner, the first Duke of Wellington.
The Backers piano is known to have been played by his wife, Kitty
Photo Credit: Daderot Wikicommons
Harpsichord by Baffo, G
Giovanni Antonio Baffo was a premier 16th-century Italian harpsichord builder based in Venice. Active primarily between 1570 and 1594, he is widely regarded as one of the most excellent master craftsmen of the Venetian school during the peak of Italy's keyboard-producing era
Photo Credit: Janot Wikicommons
