Toy piano:Square Piano

Not just playthings, some toys are designed to teach. This elaborate 1890 wooden, spinet-style piano, made by the A. Schoenhut Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has 37 keys spanning a full three-octave range. A toy in name only, the small keyboard featured full-width keys with notes tuned to accurate pitches. Young students schooled on Schoenhut toy pianos could easily graduate to adult-sized pianos when they were ready. Schoenhut even included an instruction manual with each piano he sold. The manual explained basic musical concepts and contained the music for favorite songs. Schoenhut prided himself on offering pianos "for every purse and taste," with models ranging from six keys to three octaves, including such versions as this one, with raised black keys for the full chromatic scale. In 1873, seven years after immigrating to this country from his native Germany, Albert Schoenhut distinguished himself in the toy industry by turning a fragile toy piano into a durable, miniature musical instrument. Schoenhut replaced the fragile glass-sounding plates of German toy pianos with new steel plates, which strengthened them and produced the characteristic chime-like tone we still know and love.