grand 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: Johann Friedrich Marty

Date: ca. 1810-20

Village / Town: Königsberg / present-day Kaliningrad

Country: Prussia / present-day Russia

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1979 from Alicja Błaszkiewicz, Paczków

Inventory number: PN-VI-60-106

Description: pyramid walnut veneered. Ormolu applications with floral motifs and mythological scenes on the nameboard and its flanks. Legs with brass bootees in the lion paw shape. Straight-, double-, triple-strung. Viennese action with rack dampers. Pedal lyre not original. Bassoon stop and one bell missing

Inscriptions: on the nameboard a rectangular ivory nameplate: Joh. Fried. Marty. / Königsberg i Pr.; under the casings a paper, handwritten insertion: G.H. 2880 / ...J. F. Marty 1917... Liegnitz... / Breslau.

Measurements: height 325 (875), width 1210, depth 2200 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: F₁-f⁴ – 6 octaves, five pedals – una corda, dampers, moderator/piano, moderator/pianissimo, Janissary music (drum and bells), one knee stop – bassoon

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 56

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