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: Teodor Betting

Date: ca. 1897

Village / Town: Kalisz

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Museum of Industrial History, Opatówek, ul. Kościelna 1. Bought in 1893 from Edward Kwart from Kalisz; until ca. 1978 in the Youth Culture Centre in Kalisz; previously could have belonged to the Imperial Drowning Victims Rescue Society in Kalisz

Inventory number: MHP 1/I

Description: Caucasian walnut and rosewood veneered, richly embellished with gilded, neo-rococo reliefs (acanthus and oak leaves, rocailles, treilagges, pilasters with Caryatides, a vignette with the mandolin, trumpet and music score). Cross-, single-, double-, triple-strung. Full metal frame with hitch pin block’s armour. English repetition action with overdampers

Inscriptions: T. BETTING inlaid in brass on the keyboard cover, decorated with geometric floral motifs; G. Peukert 1897 penciled on the A₂ key lever

Measurements: height 1400, width 1570, depth 350 (640) mm

Materials: wood, metal, plastic

Keyboard compass, stops: A₂-a⁴ – 7 octaves, two pedals – piano, moderator 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. 214-17; K. Rottermund, Budownictwo instrumentów muzycznych na terenie Wielkopolski w XIX i 1. połowie XX wieku, (Poznań, 2002), pp. 96-7

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