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: Jacob Bernhard Wiszniewski senior

Date: ca. 1845

Village / Town: Danzig / present-day Gdańsk

Country: Prussia / present-day Poland

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1981 from Karol Szczepaniak from Kcynia

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-018, formerly PN-VI-60-113

Description: walnut veneered. Straight-, double-, triple-strung; composite frame with two-piece rest pin block, three stress bars and capotasto bar in treble; Viennese action with lever dampers

Inscriptions: On the keyboard cover, a square namelabel inlaid in brass and mother-of-pearl, embellished with a geometric floral ornament and Gdańsk coat of arms together with Prussian coat of arms (crowned eagle with figures of the savages as holders) reads: J. B. WISZNIEWSKI / Königl. Hof Piano-Forte Fabrikant / DANZIG.

Measurements: height 365 (935), width 1370, depth 2070 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-g⁴ – 6½ 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), pp. 273-74; B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 72; B. Vogel, The Story of the Wiszniewski Family, Piano Makers of Gdansk, Muzyka Fortepianowa XI, Akademia Muzyczna, (Gdańsk, 1998), pp. 43-53

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