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: Pleyel

Date: 1847 (1846?)

Village / Town: Paris

Country: France

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Bought in 1848 by Ms Raymond, student of Chopin, who had chosen it in the factory store and signed it. Owned by Chopin foundation in Miami, USA, deposited at the Fryderyk Chopin Institute since 2009

Inventory number: D/4992

Description: “bird eye” maple veneered. Decorated with profiled slats. Straight-, single-, double-, triple-strung, English repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover a square lime plate Medailles d’Or 1827, 1834, 1839 et 1844 / Ignace Pleyel & Comp^ie / Facteurs de Pianos / N^o 23 Rue Rochechouart PARIS; on the hitch pin block tone markings, mensural markings inked by hand, on the right pressed: E / 13555; on the action frame to the left pencilled signature: F. Chopin; and pressed: 13555 / P. MEYS; on the key lever C₁ pencilled by hand: Genlis.} / Auguste Silberman gestimt 23 März 1892

Measurements: height 1170, width 1260, depth 300 (610) mm

Materials: wood, metal, ivory

Keyboard compass, stops: C₂-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

Fryderyk Chopin, Nocturne in E flat major Op. 9 No. 2, before 1832, Alex Szilasi, upright piano Pleyel 1847 serial number: 13481 © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute

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