upright player 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: Weber / Aeolian Co. Ltd.

Date: ca. 1927

Village / Town: Hayes

Country: Great Britain

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. 1980, bought from Zofia Sygietyńska-Kwoczyńska, Warsaw

Inventory number: PN-VI-60-104

Description: Mahogany veneered. In the upper door an opening for access to the pianola mechanism, in the lower door an opening for taking player pedals out. The piano part – cross-, single-, double, triple-strung, full casted frame. English repetition action with underdampers. The pianola part with pneumatic or electric (motor hidden in the back) drive

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover inlaid in brass: Weber / „PIANOLA” PIANO / „DUO-ART.” / THE AEOLIAN C^o. L^td; on the hitch pin block’s armour: WEBER / LONDON. PARIS. NEW YORK / (MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN); and the logo: THE AEOLIAN  / COMPANY LTD; on the case cover inside painted in gold: BY APPOINTMENT / MANUFACTURED BY / THE AEOLIAN COMPANY L^TD / AT / HAYES, MIDDLESEX, ENGLAND. / SHOW ROOMS-AEOLIAN HALL. / 135-6-7, NEW BONDS STREET. LONDON W.; on the soundboard: 81328; on the player frame printed paper sticker: Made in Great Britain / The Aeolian C^o LTD / London; below: H 7353.

Measurements: height 1340, width 1570, depth 460 (753) mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-c⁵ – 7¼ octaves, two  pedals – piano and dampers. Regulators for speed and dynamics of tape reading hidden in the upper opening

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 110; A.W.J.G. Ord-Hume, 'Player piano' in The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments, Vol. 4, ed. L. Libin, (Oxford, ²2014), pp. 136-38

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