Michelsonne Paris was a French brand of toy piano

Toy piano

The toy piano, also known as the kinderklavier , is a small piano-like musical instrument. The present form of the toy piano was invented in Philadelphia by a 17-year-old German immigrant named Albert Schoenhut. He worked as a repairman at Wanamaker's department store, repairing broken glass...

 manufactured from 1939 to 1970, and created by Victor Michel (1904–1983).

They were named "bell-tone pianos" on their publicity brochure. They became very rare to find. In 1970, a fire destroyed their factory at 7 rue Duvergier in Paris 75019, and the patents were sold to Bontempi.

There are several models:

• chromatic upright pianos with 13, 16, 20, 25, 30, 37 or 49 keys
• chromatic grand pianos with 25, 30 or 37 keys

In France many toy-piano players use Michelsonne pianos because of their beautiful and inimitable sound. Players include Pascal Comelade

Pascal Comelade

Pascal Paul Vincent Comelade , is a French Catalan musician.Comelade born was in Montpellier, France. After living for several years in Barcelona, he made his first album, Fluences, influenced by electronic music and by the group Heldon.Subsequently, his music has become more acoustic and is...

, Yann Tiersen

Yann Tiersen

Yann Tiersen is a musician from France. His musical career is split between studio albums, collaborations and film soundtracks with a distinctive sound that is always involved...

, Timothée Jolly, Pascal Ayerbe, Les blérots de Ravel, and Chapi chapo et les petites musiques de pluie.

External links

Play with your mouse or keyboard a Michelsonne toy-piano from Pascal Ayerbe's collection (requires Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash

Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...

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