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ERARD

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 727 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ERARD , S$BASTIEN (1752–1831), See also:

French manufacturer of musical See also:instruments, distinguished especially for the improvements he made upon the See also:harp and the See also:pianoforte, was See also:born at See also:Strassburg on the 5th of See also:April 1752. While a boy he showed See also:great aptitude for See also:practical See also:geometry and architectural See also:drawing, and in the workshop of his See also:father, who was an See also:upholsterer, he found opportunity for the See also:early exercise of his See also:mechanical ingenuity. When he was sixteen his father died, and he removed to See also:Paris where he obtained employment with a See also:harpsichord maker. Here his remarkable constructive skill, though it speedily excited the See also:jealousy of his See also:master and procured his dismissal', almost equally soon attracted the See also:notice of musicians and musical See also:instrument makers of See also:eminence. Before he was twenty-five he set up in business for himself, his first workshop being a See also:room in the hotel of the duchesse de See also:Villeroi, who gave him warm encouragement. Here he constructed in 178o his first pianoforte, which was also one of the first manufactured in See also:France. It quickly secured for its maker such a reputation that he was soon overwhelmed with commissions, and finding assistance necessary, he sent for his See also:brother, See also:Jean See also:Baptiste, in See also:conjunction with whom he established in the See also:rue de See also:Bourbon, in the See also:Faubourg St Germain, a piano manufactory, which in a few years became one of the most celebrated in See also:Europe. On the outbreak of the Revolution he went to See also:London where he established a factory. Returning to Paris in 1796, -he soon afterwards introduced See also:grand pianofortes, made in the See also:English. See also:fashion, with improvements of his own. In 18o8 he again visited London, where, two years later, he produced his first See also:double-See also:movement harp. He had previously made various improvements in the manufacture of harps, but the new instrument was an immense advance upon anything he had before produced, and obtained such a reputation that for some See also:time he devoted himself exclusively to its manufacture. It has been said that in the See also:year following his invention he made harps to the value of £25,000.

In 1812 he returned to Paris, and continued to devote himself to the further perfecting of the two instruments with which his name is associated. In 1823 he crowned his See also:

work by producing his See also:model grand pianoforte with the double escapement. Erard died at Passy, on the 5th of See also:August 1831.

End of Article: ERARD

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