Initially, diminutive spinets and pianos were intended for the children of royalty or the aristocracy; however, by the mid-19th century they came within the means of a growing, prosperous middle class. Their increased accessibility paralleled with the rise of the parlor as family life and entertaining centered on that domestic interior and thereby placing a greater emphasis on music as part of a well-rounded education.

This piano bears the name of the New York firm of Zogbaum & Fairchild. Ferdinand Zogbaum was a musical instruments dealer in Charleston, South Carolina, between 1845 and 1854. Subsequently, he relocated to New York City and established Zogbaum & Co. Four years later, Rufus Fairchild formed a partnership with him and the firm then became known as Zogbaum & Fairchild. They advertised an “extensive stock of Musical Instruments and Strings of our own manufacture,” as well as goods purchased by their agents “on the Continent of Europe.”

Their success is recorded by William L. Stone in his History of New York City from the Discovery to the Present Day (1868), proclaiming that “This is unquestionably the most extensive and most highly reputed manufacturing and importing house in this line in America, and its goods have obtained an enviable celebrity among the trade, throughout the Atlantic, Western, and Southern States, California, South America, Canada, and the other British Provinces.” He also mentions an instrument comparable to this example, “Among the leading articles may be specially noticed the Child’s Piano, which though but two feet high, two and a half long, and sixteen inches wide, is complete in every respect.”