grand piano

photo: Waldemar Kielichowski © Institute of Music and Dance, Warsaw


Alexander Melnikov © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute

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: Carl Fey

Date: ca. 1835-40

Village / Town: [Gross] Wartenberg / present-day Syców

Country: Prussia / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Gifted in 1993 by the Primary School in Mroczeń

Inventory number: MHP 45/I

Description: ash veneered. Cross-, double-, triple-strung; composite frame with one stress bar; Viennese action with rack dampers. Casing shortened by cutting ca. 200-300 mm of the tail. Legs and lyre not original. No case cover

Inscriptions: on the nameboard a square nameplate inlaid in ebony reads: C. Fey / in / Wartenberg; Seiffert Boudin [?] / nr 45/I penciled on the action’s frame

Measurements: height 360 (940?), width 1320, depth 2200 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

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

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: J. Gul, R. Sachs, Świdniccy fortepianmistrzowie, Rocznik Świdnicki 34 (2006), pp. 35-7



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