J. Kerntopf i Syn

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Fortepian core pot i Syn - firmowe logo.jpg
A Kerntopf grand piano from the 1920s

J. Kerntopf i Syn (also Kerntopf Jan or Kerntopf Jan i Syn Sp. , Later J. Kerntopf i Syn, Spółka Akcyjna ) was a piano manufacturer in Warsaw . The manufacture existed for around 100 years and was one of the most important piano makers in Poland. Instruments produced here have won several awards at international exhibitions and have also been sold outside of Poland. The company's decline began in the interwar period .

history

In 1840, Jan Aleksander Kerntopf (1812-1883) of German descent founded a piano workshop in Warsaw. The company was soon one of the city's most important piano manufacturers alongside Krall i Seidler , A. Hofer and J. Malecki . Three of his five sons would later continue the tradition as piano makers: Edward (1846–1901), Henryk (1858–1914) and Józef Kerntopf (1864–1922).

Founder and development

Kerntopf came to Warsaw as a young man from Bromberg in 1830 and began an apprenticeship at the Buchholtz i Männling piano factory of Fryderyk Buchholtz and Jerzy Männling at 24 Świętokrzyska Street . In 1830 he had reported to the Polish army in the November uprising and was seriously injured during an operation against Russian units. After the protracted recovery, he returned to his employer Buchholtz in 1833, where he worked until he received his master craftsman's certificate in 1840. In 1840 he then opened his own workshop. Around 1846 he bought the tools and supplies necessary for making instruments from the Buchholtz heirs.

Initially (until 1849) he built pianos with seven octaves , semi-metal frames and four supports. He imported components from Belgium and Germany. In 1853 he manufactured the first piano in Poland based on the “Belgian system” by the Belgian Charles-Joseph Sax (1790–1865), which was characterized by the fact that the strings ran alternately on the surface and through the inside of the body to keep the pressure on to neutralize the soundboard . This piano was made entirely from components manufactured by Kerntopf. At the “Great Industrial Exhibition” organized in Warsaw in 1857, Jan Kerntopf presented a decorative piano with a “French system” mechanism and a double frame that was awarded a diploma. At the time, half of the pianos built by Kerntopf were delivered to the Russian Empire (excluding the Weichselland ). In 1862, Kerntopf produced the first piano in Poland without using imported parts. Ten years later, the company built the first concert grand piano based on the American system (single key mechanism ), as used by Steinway & Sons . The "English mechanics" (jack mechanics) were also used. The use of this system meant a break with the " Viennese mechanics " (bounce mechanics), which had prevailed in Polish production until then.

Second generation

In 1878 Kerntopf's son Edward Konstanty, who had studied in Berlin , Dresden and Leipzig and worked as a piano tuner for several years , entered his father's business. From then on, the manufacture operated under the name of J. Kerntopf i Syn . In 1881, the second son, Henryk Kerntopf, who had also apprenticed to German piano makers and the piano manufacturer founded by Sébastien Érard in Paris, became a partner in the company. From 1892 he ran a branch in Kiev at Khreshchatyk No. 33 . This branch existed until the First World War . In the same year, the third son, Józef Kerntopf, also joined the company. After the death of their father in 1883, Edward and Henryk took over the factory, which thanks to its good reputation was able to increase its sales; In the 1880s between 30 and 60 workers worked in the Warsaw factory, which produced around 100 to 200 instruments a year.

Kerntopf instruments have won various awards at exhibitions:

After the death of Edward Kerntopf in 1901, his brothers Henryk and Józef ran the business.

Decline and World War II

Henryk Kerntopf died in 1914, his brother Józef continued the company. The First World War seriously affected the business. Financial problems led to the name of the company being changed to a joint stock company by the heirs and Bank Polski . Since the beginning of the 1920s, the name of the company has been J. Kerntopf i Syn, Spółka Akcyjna . Shortly afterwards (1922) Józef Kerntopf also died. In the founder's generation of grandchildren, only Zofia Maria Kerntopf-Romaszkowa (1896–1974), the daughter of Józej Kerntopf, was professionally involved in the music industry - even if not in the company. She was a pianist and professor at the Music Academy in Łódź . She also wrote several school books on the subject.

In the mid-1930s, only ten people were still working in the core pot factory. The company shares were later (according to a Warsaw company directory from 1942) in the hands of Aleksander and Stefania Granke, Julia Gising, Jożef Arnold and Teodor Misiorowski. In 1944 the factory building was hardly damaged during the fighting during the Warsaw Uprising ; the business itself came to a complete standstill. After the war, the company's tradition was continued under the prewar CEO Aleksander Granke in the piano department of the musical instrument cooperative “Ton” (Spółdzielnia Instrumentów Muzycznych “Ton”) ; small editions of pianos were still being built. With Granke's death in 1952, the last connection to the traditional company Kerntopf i Syn also ended .

Headquarters

Over the years, the company changed its headquarters in Warsaw several times. The production was in chronological order at ul. Elektoralna , at pl. Krasińskich 549a (1841–1886), at ul. Miodowa 14 in today's Chodkiewicz Palace (1886–1909), ul. Przemysłowa 31/33 , a privately owned building (1909–1922), at ul. Szpitalna 9 (1922–1945) and at ul. Kapucyńska 5 in the post-war period.

Relationship with Ignacy Paderewski

The pianist and later politician Ignacy Jan Paderewski met Edward Kerntopf during a visit to the company's sales salon in the 1870s. Since the Paderewski family was not wealthy, the company, at Edward's suggestion , made an instrument available to the young pianist who had been accepted at the Conservatory of the Warsaw Music Academy . The piano maker subsequently became a supporter and friend of the younger Paderewski. The young student lived for several years in the house of Edward Kerntopf's family, and in 1887 Kerntopf financed him a year of study in Vienna.

The composer later wrote about the first meeting between Paderewski and Kerntopf:

“That was really love at first sight and the beginning of a real friendship. This started Edward Kerntopf's interest in me. From the very first moment I met, he showed me, a little boy, a warm kindness, and he remained my devoted friend until his death. It's been so many years since he helped me, it was a fortunate coincidence in my life. "

- Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Memories (Pamiętniki) , Warsaw 1972, p. 56 f.

Thanks to his connections, Paderewski was able to successfully campaign at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1889 to ensure that the exhibiting Kerntopf factory received a gold medal.

The relationship between Paderewski and the Kerntopfs lasted beyond the early sponsor's death; For example, the New York Paderewski Foundation (Paderewski Fund) , established in 1895, sent support packages to a nephew of Edward, Ignacy Jan Kerntopf, in Warsaw during the Second World War.

Major customers

Many Kerntopf instruments were sold to the east. The tsarist family also owned at least one wing of the Kerntopfs. This extraordinary instrument was decorated with folk art elements in the Zakopane style after a tender at the turn of the century by the artist Stanisław Witkiewicz . The parents of Marian Filar (1917–2012), who later became a concert pianist, also bought a Kerntopf grand piano for their 12-year-old “child prodigy”.

On Kerntopf instruments, Paderewski and others played a. the following artists:

literature

  • Tomasz Markiewicz, Tadeusz W. Świątek, Krzysztof Wittels: Polacy z wyboru: Rodziny pochodzenia niemieckiego w Warszawie w XIX i XX wieku / Poland of free choice: Families of German origin in Warsaw in the 19th and 20th centuries , ISBN 978-83-62020- 46-1 , Fundacja Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej / Dom Spotkań z Historią, Warsaw 2012, pp. 153–158
  • Wiesław Głębocki: Fabryka fortepianów i pianin firmy “J. Core pot i syn " (PDF; 5.7 MB). In: Almanach Muzealny 1 , 1997, pp. 55–64 (in Polish)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Adam Zamoyski: Paderewski , ISBN 978-0002166423 , publisher: Collins, 1982, p. 16
  2. ↑ Rüdiger Ritter: Who Owns Music ?: Warsaw and Wilna in the Controversy of National and Urban Music Cultures Before 1939 , Volume 19 of the series: Research on the History and Culture of Eastern Central Europe , ISBN 978-3515083461 , Publisher: Steiner, 2004
  3. ↑ Martha Novak Clinkscale: Makers of the Piano: 1820-1860 , Volume 2, ISBN 978-0198166252 , Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 209 / Kiesselstein
  4. ↑ a b c d e Jerzy S. Majewski: Przemysłowa 31/33 on the Gazeta Wyborcza website on July 12, 2007 (in Polish, accessed on March 22, 2014)
  5. ^ Władysław Konopczyński: Polski słownik biograficzny , Volume 12, Współpracownicy Polska Akademia Umiejętności, Polska Akademia Nauk (ed.), 1967, p. 350
  6. ↑ Stanisław Dybowski: Słownik pianistów polskich , ISBN 978-8391051559 , Publisher: Selene, 2003, p 281 (in Polish)
  7. ↑ a b Music and Musicians International , Volume 36, Publisher: Filmtrax, 1987, p. 29 f.
  8. ↑ Charles Joseph MacConaghy Phillips: Paderewski, the story of a modern immortal (ed.), Kosciuszko Foundation, Publisher: The Macmillan Company, 1933, p 67
  9. ↑ Anna Gillespie and John Gillespie: Notable twentieth-century pianists: a bio-critical sourcebook , Volume 2, ISBN 978-0313296963 , Greenwood Press, 1995, pp. 647 f.
  10. ↑ Taken from: Tomasz Markiewicz, Tadeusz W. Świątek, Krzysztof Wittels: Polacy z wyboru: Rodziny pochodzenia niemieckiego w Warszawie w XIX i XX wieku / Poland of free choice: Families of German origin in Warsaw in the 19th and 20th centuries , s. LitVerz., P. 157
  11. ^ Marian Filar and Charles Patterson: From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall , Willie Morris books in memoir and biography, ISBN 978-1578064199 , University Press of Mississippi, 2002, p. 9

Web links

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