Piano

Maker: John Geib, Jr. (active 1815–22)

1815–20

American Decorative Arts

By appointment, Hume Furniture Study
Medium

Case, mahogany veneer on eastern white pine; pedestals, base, mahogany; drawer sides, backs, bottoms, yellow poplar; brace above left pedestal support, other elements, American black cherry; keys, basswood with ebony and ivory facings; soundboard, spruce; other piano elements, soft maple and eastern white pine; inlays, light and dark woods; figured panel on nameboard, probably maple rather than satinwood.

Dimensions

35 1/8 × 69 1/8 × 24 13/16 in. (89.2 × 175.6 × 63 cm)

Credit Line

Mabel Brady Garvan Collection

Accession Number

1930.2775

Geography

Made in New York, New York

Culture

American

Period

19th century

Classification

Musical Instruments

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Richard Townley Haines Halsey (1865–1942), New York, ca. 1929; sold to Francis Patrick Garvan (1875–1937), New York, 1929–30; given to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1930
Bibliography
  • Elise K. Kenney, ed., Handbook of the Collections: Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 60
  • Gerald W. R. Ward, American Case Furniture in the Mabel Brady Garvan and Other Collections at Yale University (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1988), 447, 449–51, no. 231, ill.
  • N. A. Smith, "The Case of the Nineteenth-Century Piano: Grand, Square, and Upright," Valuation (June 1984), 16–17
  • John Marshall Phillips, "Outstanding Examples from the Mabel Brady Garvan Collections," Bulletin of the Associates in Fine Arts at Yale University 8, no. 2 (February 1938), 44, ill.
  • Nancy A. McClelland, Duncan Phyfe and the English Regency, 1795–1830 (New York: William Scott, 1935), pl. 84
  • Charles Messer Stow, "The Theme of Luxury in the Garvan Collection," Antiquarian 3, no. 15 (September 1930), 36, 70, ill.
  • William Farquhar Payson, ed., Mahogany, Antique and Modern (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1926), between pp. 76–77
  • Charles O. Cornelius, Furniture Masterpieces of Duncan Phyfe (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1922), 79–80, pl. 52, facing p. 75
  • Charles O. Cornelius, "The Distinctiveness of Duncan Phyfe," Antiques 5, no. 2 (November 1922), 208, fig. 7
Object copyright
No Copyright - United States
Additional information

Object/Work type

Inscriptions

The nameboard is inscribed "Patent, / John Geib Jr. / NEW YORK." Stamped on the interior to the left of the keyboard is "5607." "A Gilt Centre No. 1" is written in pencil on the back of the nameboard, and "Ornament N 1" is written in pencil on the bottom of the sounding board. "Thomson" and "Jeffrey Johnson" are scratched on the underside of the vase, behind the lyre. The keys are numbered in pencil, and the casters are stamped "371" on the base. The modern "Tredway Brothers / Ticonderoga NY" is written in large black letters on the outside of the back. There is writing in pencil, probably modern, on the underside of the bottom of the left drawer.

Technical metadata and APIs

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