Hedén Upright Piano

Anshelm Hedén (1859–1908) founded a harmonium factory in Tampere in the late 1880s. He learned harmonium building at the factory run by Eero Mäkinen in Sortavala, among others. Hedén’s brother, Johan Emil Hedén (1875–1948) finished his journeyman training at Anshelm’s factory in 1893. The factory also manufactured pianos during the 1890s. Anshelm sold the factory to his brother in 1898. A harmonium built by J. E. Hedén was awarded in the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. The factory ended business in the early 1900s. J. E. Hedén moved to Nummela in Vihti in the early 1920s and founded a new harmonium factory. He led the factory until his death in 1948. At some point in history, emerged a story that Anshelm would have been Johan’s grandfather, who founded a factory in Tampere as early as 1860, and Johan’s father would have been a harmonium factory owner in Kangasala by the name of E. J. Hedén. Parochial registers and newspaper sources show, however, that Anshelm and Johan were indeed brothers with 16 years of age difference. No historical evidence of E. J. Hedén has been found. If Hedén’s factory in Tampere would have been founded in 1860, it would have been the first of its kind in Finland. It may be that the story has been created during Hedén’s Nummela era to promote sales: it sounds convincing to say that the factory owner comes from a family of harmonium manufacturers in three generations.