upright 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: Henri Herz

Date: ca. 1872

Village / Town: Paris

Country: France

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, 1 Kościelna St. 1991, bought from Zofia Zaręba, Warsaw (family property since the (20^th c.) interwar period)

Inventory number: MHP 25/I

Description: rosewood veneered. Straight-, single-, double-, triple-strung. English repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the nameboard inlaid in brass with geometrical-floral decoration: Medaille d’Or Medaille d’Honneur Hors Concours / Henri Herz / 48 Rue de la Victorie / PARIS; on the hitch pin block and the soundboard: 22759; on the soundboard handwritten: Henri Herz; on the dampers’ frame a paper, printed certificate with firm name, serial number, pictures of the exhibitions’ medals and Herz’s signature; on the key lever A₂ pencilled: Michał Szypcza dnia 24/10 33 r.

Measurements: height 1245, width 1340, depth 390 (650) mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-a⁴ – 7octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers, hand stop – moderator/piano

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Polskie fortepiany XIX-XX w. Kolekcja Muzeum Historii Przemysłu  w Opatówku, (Opatówek, 1994); H. Schott, S. D. Lindeman, A. Beetem Acker, ‘Herz, Henri’, The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, sec. ed., ed. L. Libin, vol. 2, (Oxford, 2014), pp. 658-59

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