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Lot n° 137
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Result : 110 000EUR
- Lot 137
PIANO FORTE - CLAVECIN ] Important Viennese fortepiano, probably made in Vienna by Anton Walter around 1784. Harpsichord-like fortepiano with a range of 5 octaves, FF-f3. The case is made of solid cherry wood, with inlaid patterns of blackened wood fillets 1.8mm wide. The backrest is made of oak. The shape of the curved ribs is that of an "S" truncated at the tail to make a cutaway (see the Walter which belonged to Mozart, bought by him in 1782 and which is in the Mozart-Geburtshaus, Salzburg and the one in the Haydn-Geburtshaus, Eisenstadt, built shortly afterwards) . This form was probably conceived by Walter. Towards the end of the 1780s he made instruments with a square cutaway. The five spindle-shaped legs are made of solid cherry wood and are screwed into blocks attached to the bottom of the instrument. Some attacks of wood-eating insects on the blocks. The lid is made of solid cherry wood with a rim and is mounted on two hinges made of blued sheet iron. The two lid flaps are each mounted on brass sheet hinges. Eyelets receive fine brass hooks, all missing except the one on the tail. The lid edge, the reinforcement inside the large lid and the construction are almost identical to those of "Mozart" and "Eisenstadt". The lid shows some accidents and deformations. A mysterious inscription in ink is on the inside of the keyboard flap. The music stand is missing. Consultant: Christopher Clarke Dimensions of the box (mm.):- Length: 2200 (with plinth at bottom of box: 2214) Width 967 (with baseboard 977) Depth of the body 241 at the keyboard, 245 at the tip. Cutaway 134 wide, dovetailed at the back, curved at the sides with a bird's beak joint. ("Mozart" & "Eisenstadt" have the same construction but are wider, 200mm). The Keyboard:- 3 octaves long 487mm. Ebony veneered heads, 3mm thick, with four fine incised lines grouped in pairs with the outer lines spaced 4.9mm apart; the edges are well rounded except for the outer sides of FF and f3. The tails are veneered in blackened pearwood 1mm thick. The heads are 38.1mm long, widths between 22.2 and 22.8mm. The tails are between 12.0 and 12.9 mm wide, except for the D's which are 14.5 mm wide. The sharps, made of stained pearwood with 1.6mm thick bone veneers, are 102.2mm long, 12.6mm wide, 7.8mm high at the front, 6.6mm at the back. The action:- This piano is equipped with a primitive version of the Viennese action, without a hammer catch The kapseln (forks mounted on the keys in which the hammers are pivoted) made of wood and covered with black felt are glued on inclined blocks, probably at the time of the installation of the action, like the brass kapseln carried on inclined threaded rods in the later actions. The geometry of the escapement sticks and the shape of the hammer rods are already typical of the Viennese mechanical engineering. The hammers, made of walnut FF-F and cherry or maple F#-f3, are covered with a single layer of white skin, 1.2mm thick in the bass and 1mm in the treble. All hammers are present. The dampers, two of which are missing, slide in the mortises of two basswood guides, not covered with skin as was later the case. The upper guide is missing its front. Damage to the top guide is noted. Most of the broken pieces have been recovered. The spacing of the mortises follows the apparent widths of the keys (D wider...). The dampers are lifted by levers on the left and right sides of the pinblock. There are no knee pads or pedals. Note that the FF damper is marked "No. 3", presumably the number assigned to the shop for each instrument in a batch. The FF fingerboard is marked with four chisel marks, so there may have been some confusion! The moderator (celestial stop or mute) is made of black cloth strips, glued individually on a thin stick. The stop is operated by an iron rod which passes through the counter-sump in the centre (its horn button is missing). Brass wire springs inside the arms of the box spring push the rod down. The iron rod is identical to the one found in the instrument at Eisen
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