Little is known about this Viennese-action grand piano signed Johann Frenzel / in Linz, apart from it having been made in Austria sometime between 1840 and 1845.

The compass is 80 notes, CC–g´´´´. The natural keys covered in bone and the accidentals slipped with ebony. The piano is straight-strung with triple stringing for most of its compass. There is a single iron brace.

By this time in piano history, the leather originally used for hammer coverings was supplanted by felt. Frenzel’s brother Karl pioneered the use of felt on the hammers of Viennese pianos. Some other Viennese-made instruments in the following decades retained a single leather layer on top of the hammer felt.

This instrument was donated to the ANU Keyboard Institute by Dr Andrew Nolan in December 2009.