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: Pleyel

Date: ca.1854

Village / Town: Paris

Country: France

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute, bought in 2013 from A. Zamoyski

Description: rosewood veneered. Straight-, double-, triple-strung, composite frame with four metal stress bars crosswisely connected and a capo tasto bar for the highest register. English grand repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover a square lime plate: Medailles / D’Or. Brevet D’Invention / S. G. D. G. / Hors de / CONCOURS / IGNACE PLEYEL & COMP^IE. / PARIS.; on many parts pressed: 20042; on the side of the keyboard block: DEESS; on the keyboard table: 20042 D; and pencilled: Duret; on the tight side of the soundboard pressed: LACK / 20042 + [with dots between the cross’ wings] D

Measurements: height 340 (940), width 1310, depth 2140 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₁-a⁴ – 6⅔ octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: R. Wieczorek, ‘Pleyel’, Encyklopedia muzyczna PWM, ed. E. Dziębowska, vol. [8]: pe–r  (Kraków, 2004), pp. 131–33; J. Jude, Pleyel 1757–1857. La passion d’un siècle, (Centre Loire, 2008), pp. 206, 265–267; Ch. Timbrell, ‘Pleyel, Ignace-Joseph (et C^ie)’, Encyclopedia of Keyboard Instruments, vol. 1: The Piano, ed. R. Palmieri, (New York & London, 1994), pp. 296–97

Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831), Nocturne in B flat major, pub. 1852, Tobias Koch, Pleyel 1854 © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute

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