Since the church organ had been developed to perfection long before the piano was invented, and the first piano makers were recruited almost entirely from the organ maker's guild, it is reasonable to suppose that "pedal pianos" were constructed in the early days of the piano industry although we have no record of any up to the year 1843 when Louis Schone, constructed pedal pianos for Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn at Leipsic. Schone constructed, for Mendelssohn, a pedal mechanism to be used with a grand piano, but Robert Schumann preferred his pedal action connected with the regular upright piano. The keyboard for pedaling was placed under the keyboard for manual playing, had 29 notes and was connected with an action placed at the back of the piano where a special soundboard, covered with 29 strings, was built into the case. As is well known, Schumann wrote some of his best music for this novel instrument.

From the book Pianos and Their Makers   by Alfred Dolge
Originally published in 1911

Strange Pianos