ANDREA CAVIGLIOTTI
                      HARPSICHORDS & PSALTERIES-OLD PIANO  RESTORATION

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The dimensions of the four surviving Graebner fortepianos are here compared naming each one with the initials related to their location:

• GI   =Les Frères Graebner fortepiano, private collection Italy
• GC =Les Frères Graebner, private collection in West Regging, Connecticut, USA
• GN =Les Frères Graebner, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nurnberg. Inv.Nr. MINe 1106
• GH =Les Frères Graebner, Haendel-Hause of Halle. Inv.Nr. MS-31

• All the four instruments have a bent tail and 5 legs; GI, GC and GN are walnut veneered while GH is in solid maple and has a frame glued around under the bottom. GI, GC and GN have legs tighten with a wooden screw directly into the bottom. GH legs are fixed to the frame and are adorned by brass rosettes. GC and GN legs are XX century remarkes.
• All the four instruments have frame and panels lid. The lid-flap is glued to an angle corresponding to that of the cheek.
• The four instruments have a frame raising the keyboard, wooden kapsels with felt around the axels and vertical escapements. Originally they hadn't checkers. GC had a checker during the restoration of 1978. All have ebony covered natural keys and pearwood accidentals, black stained and bone topped. GI still has all the original leathers on the hammer heads.
• None has original music-rest. GI, GC and GN have new ones.
• GI is the only bearing, at the restoration moment, old strings and gauge numbers.
• GC and GN have new wrestplanks and soundboards. Therefore it's impossible to deduce the original position of the bridges and nuts. Also GH bridge and nut positions aren't certain: the bridge has been doubled. There are not traces of a replacement, but differences can't be excluded.