grand 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: August Cyfrowicz

Date: ca. 1830-1835

Village / Town: Cracow

Country: Republic of Cracow / present-day Poland

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1981 from Roch Hernes from Limanowa, who had found inside the instrument in 1980 a golden signet ring with the following inscription engraved: Wolność – 29 listopada 1830 roku [Freedom – 20 November 1830] as a memento of the November Uprising. Formerly owned by the Bilikiewicz family, then – until 1980 – the Kujawski family from Gorlice

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-005, formerly PN-VI-60-110

Description: walnut veneered. Straight-, double-, triple-strung; Viennese action with lever dampers

Inscriptions: over the keyboard a printed square namelabel features an image of the Wawel castle and the inscription: CYFROWICZ / W KRAKOWIE in a wooden frame, under glass; penciled in red on the back of the dampers’ frame there is: Gorlice 22. / 10. / 1948, Eug. Szklarski fortepianmistrz z Nowego Sącza

Measurements: height 370 (920), width 1345, depth 2400 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-g⁴ – 6½ octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Fortepian polski. Budownictwo fortepianów na ziemiach polskich od poł. XVIII w. do II wojny światowej, (Warszawa, 1995), p. 205; B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, ¹1980, ²1987), p. 34

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