grand 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: unknown

Date: ca. 1810-20

Village / Town: Warsaw?

Country: Congress Kingdom of Poland / present-day Poland

Owner: Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Gifted in 1955 by Tadeusz and Edwarda Chojnacki from Warsaw. According to the family tradition, the instrument had been made by Antoni Leszczyński from Warsaw and belonged to painter Janusz Suchodolski in 1832-34 in Paris, where it was allegedly played by F. Chopin

Inventory number: M/42

Description: pyramid wavy birch veneered. Casing with a bottom, single bridge. Straight-, double-, triple-strung, one metal frame stress bar, Viennese action with rack dampers

Inscriptions: Joanna Wagrodzka (Wągrodzka?) inked on the hitch pin block’s left side; inside to the right a square brass plate has the following engraved: Zabytkowy fortepian z pierwszej / połowy XIX stulecia ofiarowany Towarzystwu im. Fryderyka Chopina / przez małżonków Edwardę i Tadeusza Chojnackich / Warszawa, maj 1955 r.

Measurements: height 310 (900), width 1190, depth 2100 mm

Materials: wood, metal, animal bone

Keyboard compass, stops: F₁-f⁴ – 6 octaves, two pedals – una corda and dampers

Catalog card by: Benjamin Vogel

Bibliography: Katalog zbiorów, muzeum, ikonografia, pamiątki i sztuka użytkowa, red. H. Wróblewska, Towarzystwo imienia Fryderyka Chopina, t. 7, (Warszawa, 1970); B. Vogel, ‘Fortepiany z Żelazowej Woli’, Ruch Muzyczny, (1982), no. 15 p. 18

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