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Grand Piano, Circa 1870
Grand Piano, Circa 1880
Grand Piano, Circa 1890
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Prior to the Civil War, the square grand piano was the piano of choice by American manufacturers. There were a limited number of grand pianos built during the early 19th Century, but they were few and far between. By the late 1860's and early 1870's, conventional grand piano models began to appear in the sales catalogs of most manufacturers, but were still dominated by the selection of square grands available. These mid-19th Century grand pianos were rarely less than 6 feet long, and were usually very massive and striking in appearance. Like square grands, they were usually made of exotic rosewood or mahogany and were beautifully carved. As the 1880s and 1890s approached, the square grand piano began to fade in popularity, and manufacturers started promoting their lines of grand and upright pianos. By the last decade of the 19th Century, the square grand piano had all but disappeared in favor of the grand piano.
In the early 20th Century the grand piano, like the upright piano, began to become a bit streamlined and simplified in design. By about 1910, smaller baby grand pianos started to become popular. These early baby grand pianos were still a bit larger and more massive than the baby grand pianos produced in the 1920s, but they were a step in the evolution toward the tiny apartment size baby grand pianos of the 1930s and 1940s. These baby grand pianos were offered in a wide variety of styles, often to compliment particular periods in furniture design, but the most popular style by far was the spade-leg classic design that most of us associate with the traditional baby grand piano of today. By the 1930's onward, tiny baby grand pianos, like the tiny spinet upright piano, continued to be popular in the modern American home as people moved into smaller houses and apartments. These tiny pianos were often referred to as "Apartment Size" baby grand pianos, sometimes measuring as little as 52 inches long! |
Grand Piano, Circa 1900 |
Baby Grand Piano, Circa 1915 |
Baby Grand Piano, Circa 1930 |
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