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: Carl Christoph Günther

Date: ca. 1835-40

Village / Town: Magdeburg

Country: Prussia / present-day Germany

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1979 from Marek Kawczyński from Sochaczew

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-037, formerly PN-VI-60-86

Description: walnut veneered. Keys’ fronts profiled. Straight-, single-, double strung with a back pin block. Composite frame with one metal stress bar; English single repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the nameboard, a rectangular nameplate inlaid in brass with a floral ornament reads: C. C. GÜNTHER / IN / MAGDEBURG

Measurements: height 335 (855), width 1850, depth 820 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-g⁴ – 6½ octaves, two pedals coupled together – dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 84; H. Henkel, Lexikon deutscher Klavierbauer, (Frankfurt am Main, 2000), p. 204

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