The piano in Illustration 289 belongs to Mrs. Ada Grisier of Auburn,
Indiana, and is an unusually fine specimen of the six-legged piano
fashionable about 1830. The case is of mahogany and is inlaid with
lines of brass, while around the body run two rows, of different width,
of brass moulding. The legs are large, and elaborately carved, and are
set in brass standards. On each corner of the frame is a design in
gilt. There is one wooden pedal, and the range of the piano is five and
one-half octaves. The name of the maker has been obliterated.
The piano in Illustration 290 is owned by Mrs. Louis M. Priest of
Salem, New York. The body is of rosewood inlaid with brass, the lid
being of mahogany, like the elaborately carved trestle-shaped supports.
It has two drawers for holding music, and one pedal, the standard for
which is a carved lyre with a mirror behind its strings. The keyboard
has a range of six octaves. The name upon the front is Peter Erben,
103 Pump St., New York. Peter Erben was a music-teacher whose address
from 1826 to 1827 was 103 Pump Street, which determines the date of
this piano. The writer knows of four pianos with the carved mahogany
trestle-supports, all with the name of Peter Erben as maker, though
it is probable that, like modern pianos, the works were bought, and
whoever wished might have his name upon the name-plate, since Peter
Erben is in the New York directories for thirty years as “Musick
teacher” or “Professor of musick” only.
[Illustration: Illus. 291.—Piano-stool, 1820-1830.]
The piano-stool in Illustration 291 was made to use with the piano in
Illustration 290. The wide spread to the three feet gives the effect
of a table base, but there is no doubt that this was made originally
to use for a piano-stool. The little weather-beaten house, in which
the piano and stool had always stood, possesses a ghost story of a
young girl who was starved to death by her miser brother, and who was
said to haunt the house. This piano and stool give the impression of
the reverse of a miser, and the poor ghost must have been before their
day. The stool is now owned by the writer, but is neither practical nor
comfortable, the feet being much in the way.
Illustration 292 shows a piano of most elaborate design, made about
1826. There is no maker’s name upon the piano. The frame is of mahogany
and has a brass moulding around the body, and brass rosette handles to
the drawers. Around each square carved panel upon the front legs is a
brass beading, and the lions’ claws on the front legs and the sockets
upon the back legs are of brass.
[Illustration: Illus. 292.—Piano, 1826.]
The front legs are elaborately carved like table bases, and the three
pedals have a support that is a cross between a lyre and a wreath. The
keyboard has six octaves, and the music-rack is very simple.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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