Houston & Co. Square Piano
date: label: date made
content: 1788 - 1792
name: label: maker
content: Houston & Co.
notes: label: Description
content: This square piano was made by Houston & Co., London, England around 1795. This piano features a “nag’s head” swell which is a pedal-operated stop that pushes a rod, sometimes shaped something like a horse’s head, against the part of the piano’s lid in the front and to the right of the keyboard. This allowed more volume out of the piano when the lid was down and could be used to make a crescendo and diminuendo effect. The piano is serial number 1434 and has a compass of FF-f3, an English double (Geib “grasshopper”) action, leather hammers, double-strings throughout with the tuning pins on the right, 1 pedal: “nag’s head” swell, 2 hand stops: lute and dampers, a wood frame, and a mahogany case.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United Kingdom: England, London
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
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content: Music & Musical Instruments
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content: Pianos
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Hugo Worch
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MI.299833
label: catalog number
content: 299833
label: accession number
content: 61285
objectType: label: Object Name
content: piano