Square piano
Maker
Emilius Nicolai Scherr
Date1830-1835 ca.
Place MadePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North America
Serial No.398
SignedGold and black painted on nameboard: New Patent / E. N. SCHERR / Philadelphia.On printed label at left of case, largely illegible but text interpreted from other intact labels: "EMILIUS N. SCHERR / Piano Forte and Organ Builder & c. / PHILADELPHIA / No.264 Market Street. / all kinds of Musical Instruments Repaired.MarkingsStamped on underside of nameboard and back of key cutout rail: 398DescriptionEmilius Scherr was a Danish-American piano and organ builder who immigrated to the United States in 1822. Scherr also built "harp-guitars," one of which is also in the NMM's collections.
Compass: FF-f4 (six octaves)
Mahogany veneered case with rosewood(?) stringing, gold-colored foliate decoration on front case corners, below keyboard, and at corners of lid; rosewood veneered nameboard with gold-colored stringing and gold stenciled decoration including gryphons and foliate patterns, ivory urn-shaped knobs on key blocks, two round removable candlestick holders flanking key well; four turned and carved legs with brass casters, carved foliate brackets at left and right of case; cast-iron hitch-pin plate with quatrefoil openings, 35 x 14 iron bar along front edge of soundboard
Pedals: 1 wooden pedal attached to lyre: dampers
Action:
English grand action variation with checks, overdampers (FF-f3)
Keyboard:
Ivory, flat maple key fronts: 45 mm
Ebony slips: 104 mm
Stringing:
FF-F# double-strung close-wound silvered copper over iron?, G-f4 double-strung iron; strings individually looped around hitchpinsDimensionsLength: 1695 mm
Width: 723 mm
Case depth: 385 mm
Total height: 877 mm
Keyboard three-octave span: 484 mm
c2 scale and strikepoint: 300 mm / 22 mmProvenanceThis piano was in the donor's family for four generations.
Credit LineGift of Roxanne Smedley Weinberg, in honor of the Smedley Family, 2025
Object number15902
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