Keyboard Instruments in the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek

Sa？etak Collection of musical instruments in the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek is the biggest and most diverse collection of its kind in the eastern Croatia. A section of keyboard instruments in the collection consists of 15 objects: nine different types of pianos, positive organ, physharmonica and four harmoniums. The square piano (Tafelklavier), the oldest instrument in the section, was built in Pest in 1815 by the carpenter Sebestyén Antal Vogel. It is chronologically followed by the three historical pianos (fortepiano, Hammerklavier or Hammerflügel), built in Vienna in the first half of the 19th century. These are characterized by the Austrian type of piano action (Ger. Prellmechanik). They were built by Ernst Wacke and Georg Gerstenberger, two lesser known builders, and Conrad Graf – one of the most prominent Viennese piano makers of the time. His historical piano, built in 1838 or 1839, is stored in the collection. Two grand pianos, made in the second half of the 19th century, and one made at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, also originate from Vienna. Leopold Schnabel’s piano was built around 1860; Gottfried Cramer’s and Wilhelm Mayer’s piano was built in 1878 or shortly thereafter (both with the Austrian type of piano action); and the Lauberger & Gloss’ piano (with the English type of piano action) was built around 1900. Two upright pianos are also kept in the collection. One built in the Caspar Lorenz & J. Stary workshop in Vienna around 1890, and the other built in the Petrof factory in Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic at the end of the 19th century. Along with different types of pianos, the collection stores the positive organ – small, one-manual pipe organ – of an unknown maker and provenance, probably built between 1850 and 1860. It was brought to the museum from the Fabing inn, whose owner may have been the innkeeper Antun Fabing. He shared his last name with the most productive organ builders family in eastern Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. The physharmonica was built in Vienna around 1840 by Jacob Deutschmann, an imperial and royal court organ maker. The collection also features four harmoniums dating from between 1880 and 1960. The most significant is the oldest one, built in Vienna around 1880 in the workshop of Teofil Kotykiewicz, who was also an imperial and royal court builder. Two harmoniums were made in the early 20th century: one in the Wilcox & White factory in Connecticut, USA and the other in Joseph Lenar？i？’s factory in Vrhnika, Slovenia. The most recent is the Theosten Helgesson’s harmonium,