Pandaleon-Clavecin
Maker
Frantz Jacob Spath
Date1767
Place MadeGermany, Europe
SignedPaper label on the front of the wrestplank, handwritten in ink: Frantz Jacob Spath / Regenspurg 1767N.B.: There is no umlaut over the “a” in Spath.
MarkingsK. Bayer. Staatseisenbahnen / Von Straubing / K. G. L. Straubing / 25 SEP. 1916 / Am nach
The K. G. L. Straubing / 25 SEP. 1916 portion is rubber-stamped diagonally, more or less between the lines Von and am: presumably the date was intended for the am line, with K. G. L. Straubing indicating who or what office in Straubing stamped it.
DescriptionThis instrument may be an example of the "Pandaleons-Clavecins" that Spath advertised in 1765. It has a primitive Stossmechanik action (presumably replacing the original action of a similar type) with hammers facing towards the player. No escapement.
Compass: C-g3. Originally it was AA-e3 (56 notes).
The present hammers, hinged like the originals to a batten at the front edge of the soundboard, are replacements from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. There are now no pedals or stops, but there is evidence of a hand-operated moderator, now missing, which had been added to the instrument at an early stage.
Dampers might originally have been attached to the hammer shanks.
Stringing: bichord throughout.
The case is prinicipally of fir (Abies).
DimensionsCase dimensions:
External length, excluding bottom molding: 1524 mm
External width, excluding bottom molding: 819 mm
Height, including bottom board: 184 mm (maximum)
Height of walls: 161 mm (maximum)
Bottom board:
Length: 1524 mm
Width: 819 mm (at front); 816 mm (across to cheek/bent-side corner)
Length of cheek side: 467.5 mm
Thickness: 22 to 24 mm
Thickness of walls:
Spine: 10 to 11 mm
Check piece: 8.5 mm
Bent side: 7.75 mm
Width of Wrest plank: 161 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 2006 from Sotheby's Auction House, London, England. The instrument was in Bavaria in 1916, as indicated by a railroad shipping label on the bottom.
Published ReferencesAna Benavides. El Piano: Instrumento, Historia y Protagonistas. (Madrid: Bassus Ediciones, 2022) pp. 54-55.
Koster, John. "Postscript to 'Among Mozart's spättischen Clavier: a Pandaleon-Clavecin by Frantz Jacob Spath, Regensburg, 1767?'" Early Keyboard Journal 31/32 (2014-2015), page 161.
Koster, John. “Among Mozart’s spättischen Clavier: a Pandaleon-Clavecin by Frantz Joseph Spath, Regensburg, 1767?,” Early Keyboard Journal 25/26 (2010), pp. 153-223.
-------. “An Early ‘Mozart Piano’ in Vermillion: Recent NMM Acquisition Authenticated as a Work of Frantz Jacob Spath,” National Music Museum Newsletter 36, no. 1/2 (February/May 2009), pp. 10-13.
Credit LineBoard of Trustees, 2006
Object number13010
On View
Not on view
