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: 1848

Village / Town: Paris

Country: France

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute, bought in 2005 from Chris Maene, Brussels, Belgium

Inventory number: MC/189

Description: rosewood veneered, decorated throughout with lightwood and brass frames. Straight-, double-, triple-strung, composite frame with four metal stress bars crosswisely connected, English grand repetition action with overdampers. An additional soundboard (missing)

Inscriptions: on the keyboard cover a square lime plate: Medailles d’Or 1827, 1834, 1839 et 1844 / Ignace Pleyel & Comp^ie. / Facteurs. du Roi / N^o 2, Rue Rochechouart PARIS; one the right side of the soundboard pressed: J. D. / 13503 / B, on many case’s parts pressed: 13503; on the pin block and action frame pressed tone marking, on the action frame in ink by hand: Donoghoe 2552

Measurements: height 325 (925), width 1290, depth 2040 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

Michał Kleofas Ogiński (1765-1833), Polonaise in A minor Farewell to the Homeland, 1794, Tobias Koch, Pleyel 1848 © The Fryderyk Chopin Institute

<< Back