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. 1880-1890

Village / Town: Breslau / present-day Wrocław

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

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul, Kościelna 1. Bought in 1985 from Aleksander and Urszula Rutkowski from Warsaw

Inventory number: MHP 8/I

Description: walnut veneered, with Mozart’s head (wooden dust cast) on the upper door. Cross-, single-, double-, triple-strung. Full metal frame, hitch pin block armoured with metal sheet. English repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover, a round brass plaque featuring a crown and coats of arms with an ox and Prussian eagle reads: J. GROSSPIETSCH / HOFLIEFERANT / IHR. KGL. HOHEIT. D. FRAU. HERZOG. ZUR MEKLEMBURG-SCHWERIN. PRINZESSIN V. PREUSSEN / BRESLAU; 1524 pressed on the hitch pin block

Measurements: height 1235, width 1460, depth 310 (590) mm

Materials: wood, metal, celluloid

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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