The piano was built in 1856 by the firm S & P Erard , For Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, This elaborately decorated instrument by Erard was intended as a showpiece for the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. The gilded case is decorated in the French early eighteenth-century style with cherub. The piano is gilded with 24ct Gold Leaf has been painted by the miniature painter François Théodore Rochard.