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: Antoni Hofer

Date: 1879

Village / Town: Warsaw

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1978 from Waldemar Gach from Ursus near Warsaw (now Warsaw)

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-002, formerly PN-VI-60-82

Description: rosewood veneered. Cross-, single-, double-, triple-strung; full cast frame with a capo tasto bar for the upper half of stringing. English single repetition action with over dampers

Inscriptions: inlaid in brass and mother-of-pearl on the keyboard cover, embellished with a floral ornament: ANTONI HOFER / W WARSZAWIE; on the hitch pin block an oval stamp: FABRYKA FORTEPIANÓW / ANTONIEGO / HOFER / w WARSZAWIE / 2593; on the soundboard a transfer featuring medals from St. Petersburg 1870 and Vienna 1873, and imperial eagle, and the text in Russian and Polish: LIST POCHWALNY 1857 / ANTONI HOFER / w Warszawie; penciled on the keyboard frame: dn. 13.8.1879 Seweryn Dąbrowski / d. 19/I 1900 Franciszek Smolarkiewicz z Kalisza

Measurements: height 350 (920), width 1370, depth 1850 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-a⁴ – 7 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. 226-227; 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. 40

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