Małecki, Stanisław
Małecki Julian, *1834, †16 July 1912 Warsaw, Polish piano builder, guild master, founder of one of the leading Polish piano factories. In 1856–60, he worked as a manager in the piano factory of S. Zembrzuski in Warsaw, after whose death (1860) he took over the plant together with W. Schröder. From 1869, Małecki ran the factory on his own, and after his partner withdrew in 1872, he ran the factory under his own name. His instruments quickly gained recognition and were awarded at exhibitions: Paris 1867 (silver medal), Vienna 1873 (medal of merit), Paris 1878 (bronze medal), Warsaw 1886 (gold medal), Paris 1889 (silver medal), Nizhny Novgorod 1896 (gold medal). From 2 January 1871, the company held the title of privileged supplier to the Warsaw Conservatory. By 1904, it produced approximately 3,800 instruments, employing on average 30–40 people. In the same year, it went bankrupt, and its building was bought by the Kerntopf factory in 1906. Reopened in 1908, and taken over around 1912 by E. Czarnowski, it continued to operate as a former company, although on a smaller scale, until 1939. Its total production amounted to approximately 4,200 instruments, many of which have survived to this day in private and museum collections, including the Museum of Musical Instruments in Poznań, the Museum of Industrial History in Opatówek near Kalisz, the collection of the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz.
Literature: B. Vogel Fortepian polski, «Historia Muzyki Polskiej» X, Warsaw 1995.