How to get a restored square pianoforte

You are a student fortepiano player, a professional fortepianoplayer, or you just want to play a square pianoforte; what you all have in common is that you want to play piano music in an historical way on a historical instrument.

Most piano music was played on square pianos  For each grand pianoforte, ca. 4000 square pianos were made. It was the keyboard instrument for the well-to-do citizens, and especially for the ladies of the house, the mother and above all: the daughters ! The most historical way of playing pianomusic from the period of ca. 1770 - 1840 is on a square pianoforte.

To get a grand pianoforte is a very expensive thing. There are not many original left, and they are unaffordable for most of us. Copies are very expensive. In the case of square pianofortes, there are still a lot of original instruments, but most of them in a bad condition. So, a restoration is neccessary.

You want your own square piano to be restored

No problem. Together with you I will inspect the instrument and I shall tell you whether it is possible to restore the instrument or not, and whether it is worth the effort. If the answers are positive, I give a rough estimate. If you live too far away, the first inspection will be done by detailed pictures.

The instrument will be transferred to my workshop, where it will be taken out in main parts. Together with you, the restoration plan will be analyzed. After that, you will receive a detailed estimation of the amount of work, the costs of the estimated hardware neccessary, and detailed information of all the parts that need to be restored. In most cases a typical complete restoration will cost between € 4.500 - 6.000, depending on the amount of work. This is exclusive the costs of the neccessary hardware; in most cases between € 500 and € 700, depending on the desired material. Of course a partial restoration will cost less. Typical partial restoration are eg. new strings, or new leather on the hammerheads (in most cases done together), or new hammer hinges.

According to the Dutch Tax Lawes, I don't calculate VAT (21 %). That's very advantageous for you !

You must keep in mind that the restoration of a square pianoforte is all done by hand, and it will be a time consuming job. So, your piano is not restored within a few months. Alone the intonation and stabilizing of the tuned strings will take some months, with long waiting times in the rest intervals. But the result is worth waiting, as you can see when you go to the Projects Page.

You want to buy a restored square piano

If you want to buy a restored square piano, there are some choices and decisions to be made. First you have to decide what kind of repertoire you want to play. It's rather clear that if you want to play mainly Schubert or Beethoven and their contemporaries, you must have an instrument from the first quarter of the 19th. century, say an instrument between 1800 and 1830. You might fall in love with an instrument from ca. 1780, but that will make no sense. Not to mention the fact that the pre-1800 instruments are considerable more rare and, as a consequence, considerable more expensive.