Johann Andreas Stumpff

Johann Andreas Stumpff (27 January 1769 – 2 November 1846[1]), born in Germany, was a maker of pianos and harps in London.

[2][3] In 1814 he returned to Germany, visiting Weimar where he briefly met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; it was probably during this visit to Germany that he bought the manuscripts of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's ten last string quartets, from the music publisher Johann Anton André.

[2][4] Stumpff visited Vienna in 1824, and Andreas Streicher gave him a letter of recommendation to Ludwig van Beethoven.

In London everybody knows something and knows it well, but the man of Vienna can only talk of eating and drinking, and sings and pounds away at music of little significance or of his own making.

Beethoven thanked him in a letter of 8 February 1827, in which he also wrote that he was ill and unable to write a note of music, and was in financial difficulty.