Antonín Petrof

Antonín Petrof (August 15, 1839 – September 9, 1915) was a Bohemian piano maker.[1]

Antonín Petrof
Antonín Petrof
Born(1839-08-15)August 15, 1839
Hradec Králové,  Austria
DiedSeptember 9, 1915(1915-09-09) (aged 76)
Hradec Králové,  Austria-Hungary
Occupationpiano maker
Known forA. Petrof / Petrof Pianos
Websiteantpetrof.com

Biography

In 1857, when Petrof was 18 years old, he was visited by his maternal uncle Jan Heitzmann at his family's Hradec Králové home. Heitzmann and his partner Hölzl were already recognized piano manufacturers in [Vienna]. Petrof learned the trade in Vienna and in 1864 returned to Bohemia, where he built his first piano. In 1865 he transformed his father's cabinetry enterprise in the old town square, behind the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit,[2] into a piano-making workshop.

In 1866, a few months before the enveloping Battle of Königgrätz, Petrof registered his company, A. Petrof. After a brief compulsory interruption, during which the Kingdom of Prussia defeated the Austrian Empire, production resumed. In 1874 his company relocated to new premises on the outskirts of Hradec Králové.

The company grew, and in 1880 an auxiliary factory opened in Temesvár, Austria-Hungary (today Timișoara, Romania). A year later, in 1881, Petrof premiered his own keyboard and mechanical design. In 1883, production of the piano began.

In 1894–95 the first instruments were exported, and A. Petrof was quickly able to establish itself. A warehouse and Comptoir were opened in Vienna. Clients included the nobility and the imperial court. By the early 20th century, A. Petrof was the largest piano manufacturer in the monarchy.[3]

By the time of Petrof's 1915 death, the company was supplying living rooms, concert halls and royal families across Europe. Its 30,000th piano had been delivered to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, two weeks before his assassination.[4]

In 2008 the company began making luxury furniture, using the same skills and techniques used to build grand pianos, in an effort to branch out and dodge ingravescent effects of the global financial crisis. Since that time, production has settled at 50% pianos, 50% furniture. Such diversification is characteristic of a survival strategy that has seen Petrof through two world wars and the Nazi invasion, as well as 40 years of the communist regime, during which, following forced nationalisation in 1948, it was incorporated into the state concern "Piano and Organ Factory".[5]:20 Under communist rule, though factory installations were expanded and production figures increased, instrument quality concomitantly declined.[6]:154–155 The current company president and Antonín Petrof’s great-great-granddaughter, Zuzana Ceralová Petrofová, was among tens of thousands of peaceful protesters who successfully demanded an end to the communist regime in 1989.[7] "During the 1930s crisis Petrof manufactured wooden railway sleepers," says Ms. Ceralová Petrofová, "and during World War II it focused on grenade boxes."[2]

gollark: Well, because I dislike being creepily surveiled. Though I mostly don't go to much effort.
gollark: As far as I know ISPs can't see that you connect to your own LAN.
gollark: You may only ask dishonest questions.
gollark: VPNs prevent ISPs from seeing all this except possibly to some extent #3, but the VPN provider can still see it, and obviously whatever service you connect to has any information sent to it.
gollark: Anyway, with HTTPS being a thing basically everywhere and DNS over HTTPS existing, ISPs can only see:- unencrypted traffic from programs/services which don't use HTTPS or TLS- the *domains* you visit (*not* pages, and definitely not their contents, just domains) - DNS over HTTPS doesn't prevent this because as far as I know it's still in plaintext in HTTPS requestts- metadata about your connection/packets/whatever- also the IPs you visit, but the domains are arguably more useful anyway

References
  1. Palmieri, R., The Piano: An Encyclopedia (Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis, 2003).
  2. Marchal, J., "Luxury piano maker Petrof turns to furniture in the global economic crisis", The Daily Telegraph, March 3, 2009.
  3. Veselinovic, M., "Piano-makers: Major challenges, minor successes", The Economist, December 7, 2013.
  4. Bauerova, L. M., "Czech Piano Maker Petrof Focuses on China Sales to Survive", Bloomberg, September 20, 2013.
  5. Anon., Czech Music (Prague: Czech Music Foundation, 2006), p. 20.
  6. Siek, S., A Dictionary for the Modern Pianist (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), pp. 154–155.
  7. Bundesverband Klavier e.V. , "History: 1915", 2017.
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