Square piano
Maker
Clementi & Company
Date1817 ca.
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
Serial No.The serial number, which would have been written in ink on the wrest plank, has been obliterated.
SignedOn nameboard in black on gold: New Patent / Clementi & Co, / 26, Cheapside, / LONDONMarkingsStamped on plank to left of keyboard, which is the series of square piano: 111649
Stamped on back of nameboard and treble key cheek, which is the batch number: 12
Stamped on batten in which legs are screwed at right end, significance unknown: 4936
DescriptionA standard square piano with the usual English square-piano escapement action. Compass FF-c4 (5+ octaves; 68 notes); ivory naturals with maple molding in front, ebony sharps; one pedal to raise the dampers. Bichord stringing throughout. Mahogany case with geometrical stringing; gilt cast-metal leaf-and-dart molding at the lower edge; nameboard veneered in satinwood with a gold circle for the inscription, surrounded by leaves and berries in gold and black; typical fretwork in the nameboard and in the triangular area behind the wrest plank; three drawers with evidently non-original lion-head pulls; six reeded screw-on legs with gilt metal collars and brass casters; gilt metal rosettes on the blocks over the legs; folding music rack on back of the nameboard.
DimensionsLength: 1677 mm
Width: 588 to 590 mm
Height of case (without drawers): 210 mm
String lengths (mm; the longer string of the pair)
c4 68½
c3 144
c2 297
c1 558
d# 796 (last brass string, original; e is an original iron string)
c 877
C1224
FF1453
Published ReferencesN.E. Michel, Historical Pianos, Harpsichords and Clavichords (Pico Rivera, California: the author, 1970), p. 200.
Credit LineGift of Shirley Stein, 2006
Object number11697
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