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. 1825-30

Village / Town: Cracow

Country: Free City of Cracow (present-day Poland)

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, 1 Kościelna St. 1991, bought from Jerzy Fabrycki, Włocławek

Inventory number: MHP 34/I

Description: pyramid mahogany veneered. Straight-, double-, triple-strung, capo tasto bar for all strings. Viennese action with rack dampers. Lyre, tuning pins and nameplate not original

Inscriptions: on the nameboard an oval, printed nameplate in an ormolu frame decorated with a spread eagle on the top, and a grapes motif on sides: Auguste Paepke / in Cracau ; on the soundboard a rectangular printed paper slip with a lyre and trumpet motifs: Auguste Paepke / bürgl: Instrumentenverfertiger / in Cracau ; wax stamps with Cracow coat of arms on the pinning table, hitch pin block and the crosswise wooden post on underside: KOMISSYA ROZPOZNAWCZA WYROBÓW KRAJOWYCH W. M. KRAKOWA U JEGO OKRĘGU ; on the checks’ rail a parchment insertion handwritten in German with Paepke’s signature and assembly instructions for piano technicians

Measurements: height 335 (880), width 1320, depth 2350 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ox bone

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-a⁴ – 6⅔ octaves, four pedals – una corda, moderator/piano, moderator/pianissimo and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

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

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