Anton Walter (1752 - 1826) was born in Neuhausen on the Fildern, Württemberg. At the end of the 1770s he moved to Vienna, where he opened his piano workshop in the Leimgrube district.

His fortepianos quickly gained a high reputation. Anton Walter received general attention, when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart purchased a fortepiano from him in 1782, which became Mozart‘s highly esteemed house and concert instrument until to his death. Today the fortepiano is kept in Mozart‘s birthplace in Salzburg.

Thus Johannes Schönfeld could describe Anton Walter as doubtless the most famous piano builder of his time in his „Jahrbuch der Tonkunst in Wien und Prag“.

His fortepianos are distinguished from the instruments of his Augsburg colleague Johann Andreas Stein (1728 - 1792), which had also been highly respected by a fuller sound, which Anton Walter archieved by using larger hammer heads, a stronger stringing and corresponding bridge scales.

J.C. NEUPERT chose as the model for his replica the fortepiano built between 1795 (J.H. van der Meer) and 1800 (M. Latcham) by Anton Walter from the NEUPERT Historical Piano Collection, now kept in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (Inv. No. MINe 109).

Technical details:

• keyboard compass: F₁ - g³ (5 octaves and one note)
• triple strung in the treble, otherwise two strings per note
• Viennese action („Prellzungenmechanik“)
• naturals ebony, sharps covered by bone
• 2 kneelevers (forte, moderator )
• length 219 cm, width 102 cm, weight 98 kg

Additional equipment:

• Panelled lid
• Pedals instead of kneelevers
• Covers and benches matching the instrument