grand piano

Classification: 3 Chordophones / 31 Simple chordophones or zithers / 314 Board zithers / 314.1 True board zithers / 314.1-4-8 True board zithers sounded by hammers or beaters, with keyboard

Piano maker: August (Auguste) Paepke

Date: ca. 1835-40

Village / Town: Cracow

Country: Republic of Cracow / present-day Poland

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1981 from Jan Brocławski from Hajnówka

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-006, formerly PN-VI-60-118

Description: walnut veneered. Straight-, double-, triple-strung. One metal frame stress bar. Viennese action with rack dampers

Inscriptions: on the nameboard, a rectangular nameplate inlaid in brass, embellished with a floral ornament: A PAEPKE; on the keyboard cover a similar label: AUGUSTE.PAEPKE / Á / CRACOVIE; on the pin block and inside the keyboard table, a round red sealing wax stamps with the Cracow coat of arms: KOMMISSYA ROZPOZNAWCZA / WYROBÓW KRAIOWYCH W: M: KRAKOWA I JEGO OKRĘGU [certificate that the instrument was manufactured locally, which allowed for it to be traded duty free between Polish lands occupied by Russia, Prussia, and Austria after the partitions, according to a 1823 trade convention]; penciled on the back-check slat: Schmidt z Warszawy

Measurements: height 380 (910), width 1350, depth 2430 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-a⁴ – 6⅔ octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Fortepian polski. Budownictwo fortepianów na ziemiach polskich od poł. XVIII w. do II wojny światowej, (Warszawa 1995), p. 255; B. Vogel, Polskie fortepiany XIX-XX w. Kolekcja Muzeum Historii Przemysłu w Opatówku, (Opatówek 1994); B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ²1987) p. 58

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