Upright piano

ALTERNATE NAME(S)

Upright grand piano (giraffe)

Date1889 ca.

Place MadeFaribault, Minnesota, United States, North America

Serial No.1186

SignedOn nameboard: Schimmel & Nelson / Patents / Faribault, Minn.
Cast in frame: SCHIMMEL & NELSON, FARIBAULT, MINN, GREATEST INVENTION, PATENT APPLIED FRO, STYLE T.
MarkingsLine drawing decorations of birds, flowers, and musical instruments in gold.
DescriptionFredolin Schimmel, of the German Schimmel Piano Company, immigrated to the United States in 1890, settling first in New York then Chicago, before moving in 1893 to Faribault, Minnesota where he established the Schimmel & Nelson firm. The firm continued until 1897 when Schimmel began making pianos under the name of Schimmel and Company, which continued operation until ca. 1912.

The NMM's piano, similar to Schimmel and Nelson's Verti-grand piano made a few years later, is reminiscent of "giraffe" pianos made in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the Musical Courier, Schimmel and Nelson claimed their Verti-Grand piano with its "patented action, placed below the keyboard instead of above... has the powerful upward stroke of the grand action as well as its repeating qualities." Regarding the case, the piano occupies "exactly the same amount of space as an upright" and is "a thing of beauty in itself. Long, sweeping curves take the place of the old box-like outlines, and the graceful Upright Grand, with its delicately carved traceries and highly polished surfaces, is an ornament to any drawing room."

88 keys, AAA-c5.
Two pedals: dampers, soft (half blow)
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.

Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979

Object number01212

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