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: Alojzy Kewitsch

Date: 1899

Village / Town: Warsaw

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Bought in 1988 from Anna Szumielewicz from Warsaw

Inventory number: MHP 21/I

Description: black lacquered. Modernised casing (reliefs and other decorative elements removed). Chandeliers not original. Cross-, single-, double-, triple-strung. Full metal frame. English sticker repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: Alois Kewitsch / Varsovie inlaid in brass on the keyboard cover; 2181 pressed on the left side; an oval sticker on the dampers’ slat reads: L. ISERMANN / HAMBURG; Feliks Szułkowski [?] 1899 Stycznia [?] penciled on the A₂ key lever

Measurements: height 1360, width 1490, depth 330 (670) mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-a⁴ – 7 octaves, two pedals – piano and dampers, moderator with hand lever on the left side of the keyboard

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. 235; B. Vogel, Polskie fortepiany XIX-XX w. Kolekcja Muzeum Historii Przemysłu  w Opatówku, (Opatówek,1994)

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