square piano

Classification: 3 Chordophones / 31 Simple chordophones or zithers / 314 Board zithers / 314.1 True board zithers / 314.12 With resonator / 314.122 With resonator box (box zither) / 314.122-4-8 True board zithers with resonator box (box zither) sounded by hammers or beaters, with keyboard

Piano maker: Ernst Irmler

Date: ca. 1855

Village / Town: Leipzig

Country: Prussia / present-day Germany

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1980 from Teresa Góraj from Łódź

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-039, formerly PN-VI-60-107

Description: walnut veneered, metal frame embellished with polychrome floral ornaments. Straight-, single-, double-, triple strung with back pin block. Composite frame with one stress bar; Viennese action with lever dampers

Inscriptions: on the nameboard, a rectangular label inlaid in brass: ERNST IRMLER ^JUN / LEIPZIG; written with black paint on the soundboard: Pianoforte Farbik / von / Ernst Irmler Jun^r / sonst / SCHAMBACH & MERHAUT / LEIPZIG / № 2150; on the casing’s bottom: 2117; penciled on the dust cover’s back: 2150

Measurements: height 325 (905), width 1850, depth 870 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-a⁴ – 6¾ octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ²1987) p. 86; H. Henkel, Lexikon deutscher Klavierbauer, (Frankfurt am Main 2000), p. 281

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