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: Johannes Grosspietsch

Date: ca. 1870

Village / Town: Breslau / present-day Wrocław

Country: Prussia (German Empire) / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Gifted in 2000 by Małgorzata Ciołowicz from Cracow

Inventory number: MHP 59/I

Description: black polished, eclectic in style, with Beethoven's head (wooden dust cast) on the upper door. Straight-, single-, double-, triple-strung. A metal rest pin block. English repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: a plate inlaid in tin and brass on the keyboard cover, decorated with a floral ornament, reads: J. Grosspietsch / BRESLAU; tone indications on the soundboard and 1077 pressed on the right side; Thum h cis a (?) written in red pencil on the dampers’ slat; № 77 G.B penciled on the keyboard blocking slat

Measurements: height 1235, width 1410, depth 260 (660) mm

Materials: wood, metal, animal bone

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-a⁴ – 7 octaves, two pedals – piano and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: K. Rottermund, Budownictwo fortepianów na Śląsku do 1945 roku, (Szczecin, 2004), pp. 302-03; Henkel, Lexikon deutsches Klavierbauer, (Frankfurt am Main, 2000) pp. 197-98

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