The first type of piano available to colonists was the same size and shape as the harpsichords being produced at the time. These pianos had a triangular, harp-shaped cabinet that extended back horizontally from the keyboard. Most of these early pianos were boxy with simple, unworked legs, although some instruments had carved cabriole legs. The pianos were generally constructed of walnut or some other wood with a walnut veneer, and were often highly decorated with marquetry in the form of foliage and figures. Typical harpsichord-style pianos were around 9 feet long and 3 and one-half feet wide.
The instrument widely referred to as the square piano made its appearance toward the end of the American colonial period. These pianos were actually rectangular, and the box that contained them measured about five feet long, one and one-half feet wide and eight inches tall. The boxes were often made of mahogany, and were generally supported by simple, straight legs. The advantage of the square piano was that it took up far less space in the drawing room than the harpsichord-style piano.
The piano developed from the harpsichord and the clavichord, both of which had been used in Europe since the 16th century. When played, the strings on a harpsichord are plucked, while the strings on a clavichord are struck by a small piece of metal. Around 1709, Italian Bartolomeo Cristofori, working in Florence, had the idea of striking the strings of a harpsichord with a hammer. The advantage of his new invention--first called the fortepiano and later the pianoforte--was that it allowed musicians to control the volume of each note depending on the force with which they hit each key.
Three pianos made by Cristofori exist today, which are similar to what American colonists who could afford a piano would have had in their homes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has a 1720 model, the Museo Strumenti Musicali in Rome has a 1722 model, and the Musikinstrumenten-Museum of Leipzig University has a Cristofori piano made in 1726. The 1720 Cristofori piano has a single keyboard with no stops, while the other two surviving models have a mechanism to move the keyboard so that only one of two strings of each pitch is struck, quieting the sound.