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[S. Brady]

Jeff,
	Ernst Irmler took over the family business in 1854, but seems to
have been succeeded by his brother Otto in 1857, so it may be that the
piano is from that three or four year period. What's the technology like?

Steve


On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Jeff Tanner wrote:

> Hello new friends,
> I am a newcomer to the chatline.  I have a "historical instrument" question
> I want to pick your brains about.  We were donated an Ernst Irmler piano
> earlier this year but can't seem to find out any solid information on the
> piano.  The soundboard emblem reveals that the instrument was built in
> Liepzig, Germany.  But even though we have the serial number it is of no
> use in that we can not find any reference to the builder.  The limited
> information we do have is that the atlases have a listing of "Irmler", but
> do not separate them (apparently, there were several Irmler piano
> builders).  Our most informative resource is a colleague of one of our
> piano professors, who apparently has access to information of several
> Irmlers, but not Ernst.
> 
> I am most interested in finding out what standard of pitch (tension) the
> piano would have been designed for, but other interesting tidbits would
> also be helpful, as the piano is displayed in the music library as more of
> a showpiece anyway.
> 
> Thanks for any help!
> Jeff Tanner
> 
> Jeff Tanner, Piano Technician
> School of Music
> University of South Carolina
> Columbia, SC 29208
> (803)-777-4392 (phone)
> (803)-777-6508 (fax)
> 
> 
> 

Steve Brady, RPT		 
University of Washington
Seattle, WA