Upright piano
Maker
Stephen Hartley
Date1882 ca.
Place MadeLondon & Halifax, England, Europe
Serial No.2460
516
SignedDecal on fallboard: LONDON / Stephen Hartley / HALIFAXDecal on fallboard: In circle to left of signature: AWARDED / TO / MR. HARTLEY / FOR / EXCELLENCY / IN THE / MANUFACTURE / OF / PIANOFORTES
Decal on fallboard: In circle to right of signature: Halifax / FINE ART / AND / INDUSTRIAL / Exhibition / 1882
MarkingsPunched on top right of wrestplank: 2460
Punched on underside of fallboard, top of action frame, and inside case, top left: 516
Punced on top of action frame, inside case, top left, and inside of lower panel: T. A. P. Earson [?]
DescriptionCompass: AAA-a4 (7 octaves) 85 notes
Two pedals: left: moderator; right: damper
Construction:
Ornate burled walnut veneer with high-gloss finish.
The sides of the upper panel are in the shape of gothic columns with incised lines.
Legs have incised lines, terminating at the top with carved leaves.
The top panel contains multi-colored marquetry, depicting a harp, tambourine, panpipes, flute, a clarinet bell, flowers, and leaves.
The bottom panel has rectangular line carving and an urn-like carving in the center, with arabesques and flowers on both sides.
The cast iron fram is decorative, with top right corner in shape of floral garlands with terminate in the corner with a tulip bulb.
There are two square bridges, bass AAA-e and treble f-a4
The tail of the bass bridge is butted against the treble bridge, and each are double pinned throughout
Soundboard grain is left to right
The treble strings have a V-bar and a pressure bar.
Wood nut in the bass section single pinned.
Modern hitchpin arrangement.
Action:
Bird-cage action with bridle tapes.
There is a wooden block, 108 mm long 35 mm high, mounted to the bakc of each key.
An L-shaped wood capstan is screwed on the front of the block, with an adjustable screw toward the back.
The top of the capstan is covered with cloth.
The total height of the capstan in 67 mm.
The top section of the the action is modern, except for the bird-cage damper mechanism and the lack of hammer return springs.
The backchecks are mounted to a lever extending from the whippen assembly whcih lifts the bird-cage wires.
The hammers have one layer of felt: 17 mm thick in bass (48mm from top to bottom) and 3 mm thick in the treble.
All action centers are individually pinned; there are no leather hinges.
There is a metal hammer rest rail.
Dampers:
Damper compass AAA-c3
Levers extend towards the front of the piano from the whippen assembly
A wooden dowel with cloth washers sits on top of this lever and is connected, via long wire (the "bird-cage") , to the damper lever.
The wire is threaded at the top and can be adjusted at this point.
The damper levers are weighted and pinnned in a flange to the front of the action frame (the flange is up instead of down.)
An L-shaped damper wire is inserted into the underside of the damper lever in front of the flange.
The damper wires are let into C-shaped damper blocks which have modern flat damper felts.
The length of the dampers decreases from bass to treble and the upper half of dampers g-sharp1-c2 were cut off.
Dampers c-sharp2-c3 have smaller damper blocks with flat rectangular felt blocks.
Keyboard:
Ivory naturals
Ebony sharps
Original candleholders, which were once attached to front, are missing
Non-original holders substituted.
Cataloging by Rodger Kelly, 1991
DimensionsLength: 1375 mm (4' 6-3/4")
Width: 603 mm (2' 1-14/")
Height: 1284 mm (4' 2-5/8")
Keyboard:
Three octave measure: 488 mm
Length of heads: 48 mm
Width of heads: 22 mm
Published ReferencesRodger S. Kelly, A Catalog of European Pianos in the Shrine to Music Museum, MM Thesis, University of South Dakota, 1991, p. 145-147.
Credit LineGift of Mark E. Muchow, in honor of his brother, Todd Muchow, 1987
Object number04195
On View
Not on view
