square piano

photo: Waldemar Kielichowski © Institute of Music and Dance, Warsaw

square piano

Classification: 3 Chordophones / 31 Simple chordophones or zithers / 314 Board zithers / 314.1 True board zithers / 314.12 With resonator / 314.122 With resonator box (box zither) / 314.122-4-8 True board zithers with resonator box (box zither) sounded by hammers or beaters, with keyboard

Piano maker: Christian Oehler (Öhler)

Date: ca. 1860

Village / Town: Stuttgart

Country: Prussia / present-day Germany

Owner: Andrzej Szwalbe Collection, Ostromecko Palace near Bydgoszcz. Bought in 1980 from Krystyna Żakowiecka from Toruń

Inventory number: MOK-VII-FZ-038, formerly PN-VI-60-114

Description: walnut veneered; metal frame embellished with cast floral ornaments. Straight-, single-, double strung with a back pin block. Composite frame with one stress bar; English single repetition action with lever dampers

Inscriptions: on the nameboard, an oval label inlaid in brass: Christian Oehler / STUTTGART.; stamped in the left corner inside casing: 597

Measurements: height 355 (910), width 1875, depth 870 mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C1-a4 – 6¾ octaves, one pedal – dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: B. Vogel, Kolekcja zabytkowych fortepianów Filharmonii Pomorskiej, (Bydgoszcz, 21987) p. 90; H. Henkel, Lexikon deutscher Klavierbauer, (Frankfurt am Main 2000), pp. 455-456



<< Back