Description

139 year old Vintage upright piano with ivory keys. Beale and Company was the largest producer of pianos in Australia from the 1890s through to the early 1960s. Being a Sydney based firm they are of particular significance to a museum's musical instrument collection. The Hapsburg Beale piano was the early type of upright piano Beale imported from Germany and then sold in Australia​,​ prior to them commencing actual piano production in this country. The trade mark name "Hapsburg" was applied for by OC Beale in 1882. Many of these instruments were sold in Australia and they became a common domestic instrument alongside many other German upright pianos also imported into Australia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This piano is an interesting example of material culture illustrating the earlier stages of the Beale Company prior to piano production. It is also an indicator of the retailing and importing side of the business in its early stages. This particular instrument remained in the same family from the early nineteenth century and was donated to myself in 2016.