Square piano
Date1790 ca.
Place MadeGermany, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneDescriptionCompass: FF-f3 (5 octaves)
Action: Prellmechanik without escapement. Underdampers.
2 knee levers: dampers, buff? (mechanism incomplete)
The soundboard is an early replacement. The stand was also made later. Originally the piano had screw on legs.
Case made of cherry wood.
Stringing: bichord throughout (strings missing).
DimensionsLength: 1536 mm
Width: 540 mm
Height of case: 195 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1991 from Laurence Libin, Ramsey, New Jersey, who purchased the piano from John Koster, New York City. Koster bought it in 1991 from Greg MacAllester, Endicott City, Maryland.
Published ReferencesKlaus, Sabine K. "German Square Pianos with Prellmechanik in Major American Museum Collections: Distinguishing Characteristics of Regional Schools in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries," Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society Vol. XXIV (1998), p. 38.
Koster, John. "Woods in Early American Keyboard Instruments as Evidence of Origins," Postprints of the Wooden Artifacts Group, Presented at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation, St. Paul, Minnesota, June 1995, pp. 15-16.
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Mr. and Mrs. James Nyberg, 1991
Object number05259
On View
Not on view
1790 ca.
