This Forte-Piano is from 1775, but was made in 1982 (video)
I've been very fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your feelings for Baroque music) to be able to get my hands dirty learning about harpsichords. There's a Bach society here in Miami, the New World Symphony utilizes one every season without fail, and the Florida Grand Opera performs operas with harpsichords in the orchestra on a regular basis. So, while the world of Piano-Forte's was completely foreign to me, I wasn't really worried about needing to prepare one coming to the New World Symphony for their all-Beethoven concert.
The Piano-Forte pictured came from Tampa and was made by Ferdinand Pointer. It's an early style Piano-Forte with a Viennese action. While it tuned like a harpsichord, the tone was unlike any keyboard instrument I've come across. The hammers are small and wrapped in leather instead of felt which gave a mellow but somehow powerful sound (see the video below).
The Viennese action actually seems a bit simpler than a harpsichord action, mostly because it's much like a piano action, and you can see it all in front of you when you pull the action out. This one had some sluggish hammers caused by the fork pinching the shank pin. Widening the fork frees the shank. There's a specific tool for this but Ferdinand told me to "jam a screw driver in there" and I did. It worked too.
But, rather than talk about this Piano-Forte anymore you can watch the video I took of Alexander Malikov warming up.
There's also a photo gallery below.
