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: Fryderyk Buchholtz

Date: ca. 1838

Village / Town: Warsaw

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Bought in 1990 from Mieczysław Wzgarda from Kalisz

Inventory number: MHP 24/I

Description: mahogany veneered, decorated with double lines inlaid in brass and ormolu handles for locking the casing’s cover. Straight-, double-, triple-strung; composite frame with five metal stress bars connected crosswise and a capotasto bar for the upper part of strings. English single repetition action with upper dampers (without counter-keyboard)

Inscriptions: a printed square nameplate on the nameboard in an ormolu frame, under glass, reads: Fryderyk Buchholtz / w WARSZAWIE; on its back Neichow /khow[?] / N^o 3 [5?]N^ro 86 Lan….is penciled; a round stamp on the hitch pin block states: Fryderyk / Buchholtz / w WARSZAWIE; N^o 6 Gradowski on the casing’s beam structure inked

Measurements: height 340 (915), width 1305, depth 2240 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), pp. 204-05; B. Vogel, Polskie fortepiany XIX-XX w. Kolekcja Muzeum Historii Przemysłu  w Opatówku, (Opatówek, 1994)

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