These are photos from an Ehrbar brochure from the 1950s which is in German as one can see.
Friedrich Conrad Ehrbar was born on the 26th April 1827 in Hildesheim, Hamayer, Germany. This is verified by his two marriage documents. His father was Jakob Ehrbar and his mother was Johanna Kronen. According to Robert Palmieri’s book ‘An Encyclopaedia of the Piano’, at the age of two years he became an orphan because his parents and sister died in a cholera epidemic within a week of each other. He spent his childhood in orphanages. However, according to Robert Palmieri ‘showing a decided talent for music as well as mechanical ability, when still a schoolboy, by making guitars for himself and comrades, the organ builder, Ernst Christian Frederici of Hanover, consented to take him as an apprentice.’ After leaving Hanover at the end of his seven-year apprenticeship, Ehrbar travelled to several places before finally settling in Vienna. At that time in Vienna, there were over two hundred piano makers in the city.
Ehrbar obtained employment with the piano maker Eduard Seuffert. (This name is also sometimes spelt Sieffert or Seyffert). Eduard Seuffert developed further the ‘giraffe’ or ‘pyramid’ piano which his father, Martin had constructed. This design evolved into the ‘pianino’ or upright piano. Seuffert quickly realised Ehrbar’s ability and in 1854 Ehrbar was given the job of producing six pianos for the Munich exposition. Ehrbar received a prize medal at this exhibition and all the six pianos were sold.
Giraffe piano, c1820 - 1830, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
By Rijksmuseum - http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.351485, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84853860
In 1855 Seuffert died on the 7th July and in 1857 Ehrbar took over the ownership of Seuffert’s business. It can be assumed that this is when the piano making business changed its name to that of Ehrbar. He married Seuffert’s widow on the 4th May 1857. Possibly by marrying Seuffert’s widow Rosa, he acquired the company as part of the marriage. Ehrbar’s pianos won first prize at the World Fairs held in London in 1862 and in Paris in 1867 and in 1878. He received other prizes and medals at other exhibitions and world fairs too. At the Vienna Exposition, Ehrbar was a juror for the musical instrument exhibits. Because of the quality of his instruments, Ehrbar was awarded an imperial and royal warrant to the Emperor and King of Austria-Hungary in 1859. He was also awarded a warrant of appointment to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the royal families of Greece, Serbia and Portugal. The only pianos to be awarded the warrant were those of Bosendorfer, Streicher and Ehrbar.
Piano by Ehrbar, exhibited 1873 at the World Fair in Vienna.
By Unknown author - Austrian journal Wiener Salonblatt, 21 September 1873, p. 487, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87739979
There is an article in the Illustrated London News on the 20th June 1867 about the Paris World Fair. The reviewer of the piano states that “the Italian instruments do not appear to me to claim any great amount of attention. The tone of some of the instruments is sufficiently pleasing, but they are deficient in strength and character”. The reviewer then goes on to say “there are some capital pianos in the Austrian section, and first on the list should, I think be placed a grand piano sent by Streicher of Vienna, which, in point of brilliancy and sonority, and general excellence of construction, has every right to be ranked amongst instruments of first class. Messers Ehrbar (Vienna), Promberger (Vienna), Bosendorfer (Vienna) and Beregzasy (Hungary) have, however, sent some very admirable pianos and it is hard to say that one instrument is better than the other”. Apparently, Russia only sent a few pianos, he praises two piano makers from Warsaw. He unreservedly praises the pianos from the United States and the exhibitors are Messers Steinway (New York), Chickering (Boston and New York) and Lindemanu (New York). The reviewer makes an interesting comment concerning the type of pianos being constructed in the United States. The upright piano was not in favour in the country, the square piano was very popular instead even though other countries had abandoned it. 95% of pianos made in the United States at the time were those of the square design.
On the 19th August 1871, Ehrbar married Maria Anna Ernestine Raadharkinger in Vienna. As far as I can tell, he had two children with Maria, a daughter and son, Friedrich Benedict Ernst Ehbar (1873 – 1921).
By Anonymous photographer, not identified anywhere - Newspaper Musik- und Theaterzeitung, May, 1905; 16th vol., no. 3, p. 1http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?apm=0&aid=omt&datum=19050103&seite=00000001&zoom=2, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19669778
Ehrbar adopted new innovations in his piano making, one being the use of a complete iron frame to strengthen the piano in 1862. In the British newspapers there are many entries for an article concerning an invention of Ehrbar’s. For example, the Berwickshire News and General Advertiser 31st July 1877 states ‘Ehrbar, the well-known pianoforte maker at Vienna has, it appears, invented a mechanism rendering it possible to prolong the sound of each note on the piano. If Ehrbar could manage to hit upon a plan to shorten the sound of some pianos, or to stop their sound altogether unless they are played upon properly, would do something to be proud of”.
The Saal Ehrbar was built in 1876/7, this being a concert hall in Vienna. Several well-known composers and artists played in this concert hall, Brahms, Bruckner, Reger and Mahler to name a few. Ehrbar’s pianos were used in this concert hall. Brahms played the piano duet version of his 4th Symphony on an Ehrbar piano at the Saal Ehrbar. During WW1 the concert hall fell into disrepair and for a time it was used as a makeshift hospital during WW2. It has since been repaired.
Janacek received an Ehrbar piano as a wedding gift, and this piano he retained all his life.
There is a lengthy article in the’ The Queen’ newspaper dated 7th June 1902 where the Prince and Princess of Wales attended the Austrian Exhibition of Art Industries. Its purpose was to bring attention to the British public about Austrian art industry and manufacture. The London Evening Standard of the 4th June 1902 describes “in one of the Watt rooms the Princess listened attentively to Mr F. Ehrbar, of Vienna demonstrating the rich qualities in the tones of an Austrian piano”.
In a letter to Eduard Hanslick described the tone of the Ehrbar grand piano as “soft and lovely yet very powerful and strong’. A 1912 Ehrbar catalogue offered grand pianos with both English and the “improved” Viennese action. To a certain extent the Viennese piano makers were more conservative than others. Ehrbar preferred to retain the single escapement action rather than the double escapement action as he thought it had a more pleasing sound. In the early 20th century, there was an Ehrbar shop at 30 Wigmore St, London.
Ehrbar retired from his piano making business in 1898 and he died at his country home near Vienna on the 25th February 1905 in Gloggnitz, Nuenkirchen. He is buried (apparently in a crypt) in the Grinzinger Cemetery, the same cemetery where Gustav Mahler is buried. WW1 greatly affected the Austrian piano making business. The business was carried on by Ehrbar’s son, Friedrich Benedict Ernst Ehrbar who was born in 1873 and died in 1921. The Ehrbar piano was in serious competition with the Bosendorfer piano, another Viennese piano maker. The company continued building pianos in small numbers and in 1983 the last piano was made in Ehrbar factory in Muhlgasse.
References
Pianos and their Makers, A Comprehensive History of the Development of the Piano, Alfred Dolge, Dover Publication published 1972.
Encyclopaedia of the Piano, Palmieri Robert
www.primrosepianoquartet.org.uk