Similar to Clinkscale II, p.200, serial no. 4028
Unrestored by restorable: ? all parts present
Description
Nameboard: J.G. IRMLER Inhaber der Konigl. Sachs. kleinen & grossen goldnen Preismedaille LEIPZIG
Number: 3871 (paper label on underside of base)
Keyboard: single unreveresed manual
Keyboard materials: ebony sharos, ivory naturals
Compass: 6-1/2 octaves 80 notes CC-g4
Pitch: A415Hz
Tuning: Equal temp “prellmechanik”
Hammer coverings: felt
Bridge: single
Strings:
- (7 notes) unichord wound copper on brass core (CC-FF#)
- (5 notes) unichord brass (GC-BB)
- (17 notes) bichord brassĀ (C-e)
- (31 notes) bichord iron (f-b2)
- (20 notes) trichord iron (c3-g4)
Dampers: overdampers nto C-Eflat, 64 notes, top 16 notes undamped
Frame: timber with decorated black rococo arabeques on brass coloured metal string plate and two metal bracing bars
Pedals: (on lyre); L; una chorda (by stopping one string). R; damper lift
Lyre: carved, centrally suspended
Soundboard: inscription on L rear corner “Piano Forte Fabrik van J.C.G Irmler senior in Leipzig”
Case: rosewood
Case lid: rosewood, supporting sticks at each side
Keyboard lid and fallboard: rosewood attached to case lid
Music desk: ? rosewood, detachable (missing)
Legs: 4 eight-faceted bulbous detachable tapered legs with castors
Dimensions(mm): 1483w x 850d x 340h
Repertoire: Mendelssohn, Schumann
Provenance: purchased from Stewart Symonds
Condition category: III
Rectification required: action now jammed due to lead disease: expected to respond to removal of excess
Concert dates: 28.09.97
Commentary
All of the contemporaneous representations of Schubert at the fortepiano, including those of the “Schubertiads”, show square domestic instruments. Schubert is unlikely to have been able to afford a much more expensive grand fortepiano, which would in any case have occupied too much space in the small rooms in which “Schubertiads” were held.
The present instrument serves to remind us that the so-called “Viennese” action was invented, not in Vienna, but (by Stein) in Augsburg, some 40km from Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. Irmler was the earliest major fortepiano builder in Leipzig (1814), being succeeded by his son and followed by Bretschneider (1833) and Bluthner (1853).
For reasons now unknown, the firm split into two, both still in Leipzig, after his three sons inherited it on his death in 1857. Otto (1820-1861) and Oswald (1835-1905) continued under their father’s name, beomng succeeded by Oswald’s sons; this form ceased manufacturing in the 1950s. Ernest ??? apparently extant 1821-18610 passed his enterprise to his son of the same name, under which it continued to build pianos until 1867, after which it seems to have passed out of the family’s hands.
The Schureck Collection’s Irmler carries no date, and its compass and number allow this to be estimated from information derived from analagous instruments of known date (No. 1285: FF to f3 of c.1835 and no. 4028: CC to g4 of c.1847), suggesting a likely date of c.1845.
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