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: Erard

Date: 1838

Village / Town: Paris

Country: France

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute, bought in 2010 from Piotr Folkert, Alpharetta, USA. 1922 restored in the Erard factory where hammer felt and strings were replaced

Description: rosewood veneered, case decorated with lightwood frames. Straight-, single-, double-, triple-strung, composite frame with five metal stress bars and capo tasto bar for the highest register, English double escapement action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover inlaid in brass: PAR BREVET D’INVENTION / Erard / à Paris; on the soundboard: 14214; and: Par Brevet d’Invention / Seb: & P^re Erard / 13 & 21 rue du Mail, / Paris.; on the keyboard frame, hammer shanks, key levers and pedal lyre pressed: 14214; on the sides of the C₁ and a⁴ key levers pencilled: Legrand 1922

Measurements: height 360 (960), width 1300, depth 2350 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

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

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: D. Pawlak, ‘Érard’, Encyklopedia muzyczna PWM, vol. 3, ed. E. Dziębowska (Kraków, 1987);  E. M. Frederick, ‘Erard, Sébastien (et Frères)’, Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, vol. 1 The Piano, ed. R. Palmieri (New York, 1994)

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