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: Jan Kerntopf i Syn

Date: ca. 1929

Village / Town: Warsaw

Country: Polska

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Gifted by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2009, formerly at the Polish Embassy in Bern, Switzerland

Description: black lacquered. Cross-, single- double-, triple-strung; full metal frame with hitch pin block’s armour and a capo tasto bar for the upper half of stringing; English double repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: J. Kerntopf & Syn / Warszawa inlaid in brass on the keyboard cover; cast on the rest pin block: J. KERNTOPF I SYN; pressed on the action frame: SCHWANDER / BREVETÉ / 951192; painted in black on the hitch pin block armour’s left side: 6470; penciled on the action’s hammer slat and the A₂ key lever: Kerntopf; stamped on the right side of the metal action’s frame: Q 122; inscribed in a pen on the key levers' tuners: E. Låuchl. Bern / 27.X.71 ½ # 880; 6.12.05 / 442 Hz O.st.; E З 18-8-99 / 68% 441 Hz ₣ [?]; E. Z. 10.12.99 / 52% 441 Hz ₣ [?]; 16. 20.01.8[?] / 58% 442 Hz ₣ [?]; E 19 III/8

Measurements: height 385 (1010), width 1500, depth 1660 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-c⁵ – 7¼ 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. 232-235

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