Images(2)

Grand piano

Maker Steinway & Sons

Date1869

Place MadeNew York, New York, United States, North America

ModelPlain Grand Style 2

Serial No.15395

SignedSTEINWAY & SONS / NOV. DEC. / PAT. 29 20 1859 / June 5, 1866 / NEW YORKMarkingsOn left side of soundboard, handwritten in ink: Repaired / [treble clef] restrung / Sept.
6, / 1927 / Howard I. StallDescriptionCompass: AAA-c5 (88 notes)
Two pedals: una corda, dampers.
Agraffes throughout the entire compass.
Grand cross stringing patented in 1859.
17-note bass section.
Curved bass bridge.

Brazilian rosewood veneer with three decoratively carved rosewood-grained hardwood legs

Bent-side constructed from eight pieces of laminated maple, with thick rosewood veneer
Spine of single piece of hardwood
Pine beams
Spruce soundboard grain tangential to bent side with ribs at approximately 90 degrees to grain

3/4th iron plate with seven struts

Decoratively carved hardwood legs with casters
Decoratively scroll cut rosewood music desk

Action:
Erard-Herz action with rockers

Keyboard:
Naturals covered with two-piece ivory
Ebony sharpsDimensions8 ½’ x 4’9” (at front)ProvenanceOn February 17, 1869 the piano was shipped to Kunkel Bros., St. Louis, Missouri. From the 1880’s to 1899 it was at the Park Hotel, Pierre, South Dakota.
On August 30, 1899 the hotel building and piano was purchased by the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, South Dakota. The piano remained in Pierre until ca. 1915 when, until 1936, it was at the Sisters of Sacred Heart Convent, Yankton. From 1936-1982 the piano was in Bede Hall, Mount Marty Junior College, Yankton.Published ReferencesKuronen, Darcy. "Keyboard Instruments at The Shrine to Music Museum." _Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter_ VI, no. 1 (October 1991): 11.

Sheets, Arian. "Creating a Modern American Piano: Antecedents, Launch, and Reinvention of Mason & Hamlin's Piano Line Through 1905." M.M. thesis, University of South Dakota, 2026: 19.

In October 2017, Dr. Susanne Skyrm, University of South Dakota Professor Emerita, and Rodger Kelly, Deputy Director of Operations at the National Music Museum, participated in the first global Granados Marathon. Hosted by the International Festival of Spanish Keyboard Music, participants from nine locations in six countries streamed the complete keyboard works of Enrique Granados. The piano was made in 1867, the year Granados was born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gddya6QACnU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-uuzbGIx18

Credit LineGift of the Benedictine Sisters of Sacred Heart Convent, 1982

Object number03173

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