Grand piano
Maker
Joaquim José Antunes
Date1767
Place MadeLisbon, Portugal, Europe
Serial No.none
SignedHandwritten in ink on key 51: 1767 AntunesMarkingsGauge markings on spruce-veneered wrestplank
DescriptionThe Antunes family held an enviable position in the 1760s, having received a royal writ in 1760 which granted them the sole privilege of piano manufacture and commerce in Portugal for a period of ten years.
The interior of this remarkably preserved piano is veneered in Brazilian tulipwood. The piano has a Cristofori-type action and a hand-operated una corda.
Compass: C-d3 (4+ octaves, 51 notes).
Boxwood naturals, ebony over rosewood accidentals.
Spruce soundboard with grain parallel to spine; unvarnished.
Stringing: bichord throughout.
DimensionsLength including molding: 2305 mm
Width: 858 mm
Overall height : 857 mm
Height of case: 223mm
Spine thickness: 18mm
Bentside thickness: 16.5mm
Tail length: 232mm
Angle of tail with spine: 88 degrees
Bridge at treble: 12mm high, 10mm thick
Hitchpin rail width: 40mm (except at the tail, where the left side of the hitchpin rail follows the curve of the bridge)
Keyboard span: 490 mm
Three-octave measure: 488mm
Length of heads: 44mm
Width of heads: 22mm
String lengths:
C: 1777mm
c: 1048mm
c1: 530mm
c2: 271 mm
c3: 133mm
d3: 118mm
Striking points:
C: 138mm
c: 102mm
c1: 72mm
c2: 44mm
c3: 23mm
d3: 21mm
Gauge markings on wrestplank:
00 C
0 D
0 D#
1 e
2 f
2 d2
3 d#2
3 c#2
4 d2
Jacks:
Total height: 33mm
Height of capsel: 25mm
Thickness of intermediate levers: 4mm
Width of intermediate levers: 9.5mm
Hammer shank thickness: 4mm
Length of hammer heads: 39mm
Thickness of hammer heads: 2mm at center
Width of hammer heads: 6mm (center), 12mm (head)
Thickness of damper levers: 1.5mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1990 at Sotheby’s Auction House, London, England.
Previously owned by António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, Lisbon, Portugal.
Published ReferencesNMM catalog: _As Good as Gold: The First 50 Years (1973-2023)_. Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2023. (pp. 37, 46-47)
Ana Benavides. El Piano: Instrumento, Historia y Protagonistas. (Madrid: Bassus Ediciones, 2022) pp. 88-89.
Tudela, Ana Paula. _Os Antunes, Mestres Portugueses de Fazer Cravos, Pianofortes e Pianos. Séculos XVIII e XIX_. Lisboa: INCM – Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 2019.
"1990 Marked by More Incredible Acquisitions," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XVIII, No. 2 (January 1991), p. 1.
Cole, Michael. The Pianoforte in the Classical Era (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 17.
“Instrumental Innovations,” Wall Street Journal (December 7, 2007), p. W4.
Kelly, Rodger S. A Catalog of European Pianos in The Shrine to Music Museum, M.M. Thesis (University of South Dakota: 1991), pp. 3-12.
Koster, John. "Foreign Influences in Eighteenth-Century French Piano Making," Early Keyboard Journal, Vol. 11 (1993), pp. 23-25.
-------. "The 'Godoy' Broadwood Grand Pianoforte with Wedgwood and Tassie Mounts," The Heritage of Wedgwood, edited by Keith A. McLeod and James R. Boyle (Wedgwood International Seminars, 1998), pp. 212-228.
-------. "Three Grand Pianos in the Florentine Tradition," Musique- Images-Instruments, Vol. 4 (1998), pp. 95-103.
-------. “Towards an optimal instrument: Domenico Scarlatti and the new wave of Iberian Harpsichord making,” Early Music, Vol. XXXV, No. 4 (November 2007), p. 588.
-------. "Grand Piano, Manuel Antunes, Portugal, 1767," South Dakota Musician, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Winter 1993), cover and p. 24.
-------. “Pre-classical Piano . . . Museum to Host International Piano Conference May 5-8,” America’s Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, 27, No. 1 (February 2000), pp. 1-2.
Muenster, Ted. “South Dakota’s Shrine to Musica,” Prairie Fire, Vol. 3, Number 4 (April 2009), pages 12-15.
Musical Instruments, London, November 22, 1990 (London: Sotheby's, 1990), pp. 104-105.
Piano Technicians Journal, Vol. 49, No. 12 (December 2006), cover, pp. 5 and 15.
Pollens, Stewart. The Early Pianoforte (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 137-156.
Larson, Andre P. "Grand Piano, Manuel Antunes, Portugal, 1767," South Dakota Musician 27, no. 2 (Winter 1993), cover and p.24
Prideaux, Sally, ed. Sotheby's Art at Auction 1990-91 (London: Sotheby's, 1991), p. 319
"Rare Piano Makes Its Debut… Many Important Instruments Acquired Again in 1992," The Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 20, No. 2 (January 1993), pp. 1-4.
"Rare Piano Makes Debut," Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter, Vol. XVIII, No. 3 (April 1991), pp. 3-4.
Skyrm, Susanne, ed., with assistance from Calvert Johnston and John Koster,. Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Spanish Keyboard Music for Organ, Piano, Harpsichord, or Clavichord (Colfax, North Carolina: Wayne Leupold Editions, 2010), p. 23.
“Special Recording Makes a Unique Holiday Gift,” America’s Shrine to Music Museum Newsletter 25, No. 1 (October 1997), p. 3.
Sutherland, David. "Domenico Scarlatti and the Florentine Piano," Early Music, Vol. 23, No. 2 (May 1995), pp. 245.
CDs
Parmentier, Edward. The Portuguese Fortepiano: 18th-Century Iberian Keyboard Music (Berkeley, California: Wildboar, 1999).
Skyrm, Susanne. Treasures of Iberian Keyboard Music on the Antunes Fortepiano (1767) (Berkeley, California: Music and Arts Program of America, Inc., 1997).
Fernandes, Cremilde Rosado. Ludovico Giustini di Pistoia, Sonate da Cimbalo di Piano, e Forte (Firenze, 1732) (Pacos de Brandao Codex, Portugal: Numerica Editora Discografica, 1996).
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1990
Object number05055
On View
Not on view
1800-1820 ca.
