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: Eugen Adalbert Wiszniewski

Date: ca. 1850

Village / Town: Bromberg / present-day Bydgoszcz

Country: Prussia / present-day Poland

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1982 from Krzysztof Osiński from Zabrze

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-010, formerly PN-VI-60-125

Description: walnut veneered; stress bars embellished with floral polychrome. Straight-, double-, triple-strung; four metal stress bars and a capotasto bar in treble; English single repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover, a square namelabel inlaid in brass and animal bone, adorned with a floral decoration and a lyre in the centre reads: EUGEN A. WISZNIEWSKI / INSTRUMENTEN-VERFERTIGER / BROMBERG

Measurements: height 330 (930), width 1305, depth 2070 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. 273; B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 70; 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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