upright piano Sirenion

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: Johann Joseph Promberger sen.

Date: ca. 1825

Village / Town: Vienna

Country: Austrian Empire / present-day Austria

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1981 from Roch Hernes from Limanowa

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-044, formerly PN-VI-60-115

Description: rosewood veneered. Upper door with two rectangular panels lined with jacquard silk; lower door with two rectangular panels lined with metalized mesh. Straight-, double-strung throughout. Bass strings F₁-C with a rare spun and additional, thinner, aliquot strings. Other brass and iron strings without spun. Viennese action with under dampers

Inscriptions: on the upper door, between panels, a brass plate in the shape of the Amazons' shields with the imperial eagle’s heads on the sides and Medusa’s head at the top, featuring the engraved text: SIRENION / Erfunden von / Johann Promberger / in Wien; on the hitch pin block, a round blue, partly crashed, pressed stamp featuring the imperial eagle and illegible text around the rim; pressed underneath: 14; an illegible oval stamp on the right side

Measurements: height 1275, width 1200, depth 330 (565) mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: F₁-f⁴ – 6 octaves, three pedals – una corda, dampers and moderator

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987) p. 104; M. Novak-Clinkscale, Makers of the Piano, vol. 2, 1820-1860, (Oxford 1999) pp. 300-301; A. B. Acker, Sirenion, in: The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 2nd ed., red. L. Libin, vol. 4, (Oxford 2014) p. 525

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