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: Arnold Fibiger

Date: ca. 1903-05

Village / Town: Kalisz

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Gifted in 2001 by Włodzimierz Majewski from Bełchatów

Inventory number: MHP 62/I

Description: black lacquered, eclectic, with Art Nouveau grooving and chandeliers. Cross-, single-, double-, triple-strung. Full metal frame with hitch pin block’s armour. English repetition action with underdampers (by Iseramnn)

Inscriptions: Arnold Fibiger / Médaille d’Or inlaid in brass and mother-of-pearl on the keyboard cover; 2958 Jähn penciled on the back of the keyboard blocking slat; 2958 pressed at the top of the soundboard to the left; 2958 inked on a paper sticker an the back; L. ISERMANN / HAMBURG stamped on the action frame; Moderator on the chain head of the moderator’s lever, framed with a gilded ornament; 484 pressed on its back

Measurements: height 1360, width 1280, depth 330 (640) mm

Materials: wood, metal, plastic

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-c⁵ – 7¼ octaves, three pedals – piano, moderator and dampers, on the right side of the keyboard a hand lever to block the moderator

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), pp. 214-17; K. Rottermund, Budownictwo instrumentów muzycznych na terenie Wielkopolski w XIX i 1. połowie XX wieku, (Poznań, 2002), pp. 102-06

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