Would you like to assess the age of a piano? Are you also interested in the residual value of the piano? For determining the age of a piano you need the serial number it received from the manufacturer.
The serial number is usually a five- to nine-digit number. It can be found on the pin block, sometimes also on the inside of the case or on the sounding board under the pin block of the instrument.
In order to facilitate finding the serial number, the following images demonstrate where the serial number usually can be found on grand pianos and upright pianos. In order to be able to assign the serial number to the year of production, here you can find lists of production for some of the most well-known manufacturers and corresponding year entries.
Only the age of the instrument can be determined via the serial number. The model and value of the instrument are independent of this. In assessing the current value of a piano, not only is the age relevant but also—above all—the current condition of the instrument. Decisive factors are: general condition and tone, frequency of use, construction, climatic damage, pest infestation and the like.
Depreciation in value is caused by abrasion, lack of care, non-craftsman repairs, etc. In order to give you an idea as to whether a value assessment by a specialist and master piano craftsman would still be expedient, we provide you with a table to assist you in arriving at an approximate value. Continually old instruments show at antiques dealers or inheritances. The pictures above show how you can detect a Viennese-action.
The arrows show you the damping and the fulcrum of the hammer handles which mark this difference. The last instruments constructed like this were built in Austria around Craig, this is Bluthner , which seems very much like your client's piano. Here is a medallion with a Cassel award at bottom left - this is on a later instrument, number Number has the same medallion as your client's piano.
However, just below the medallion is a decal with a clear date ! This shows that the medallions were not necessarily updated immediately when a new prize was awarded. But it does seem likely that your client's piano dates from the late s or early s. On the soundboard, beneath the strings, all these Bluthners have a decal showing the prizes awarded. I expect you will find one if you do a little cleaning. This one is from This is where I expect you will find the serial number, between the two sets of pins.
However, in the earliest Bluthners the number is located beneath the leftmost string. And in later instruments s and later the serial number is located just below the soundboard decal. This is my own piano, number And you can also find the number on a paper label at the rear right of the action cavity. However, I am not sure when Bluthner started doing this, or whether the s pianos had such a label. If you can find the serial number of the piano, you can look up the date in the age table on Bluthner UK's web site.
However, this is not necessarily quite accurate; for my piano it indicates a date three years too early. It might incidentally be worth while for you to contact Bluthner in London; they do have a record of instruments imported to the UK. I am not sure that any period for Bluthner is well documented, as I understand that the records were lost when the factory was destroyed in the War.
I have been trying to establish a data base of Bluthner plate styles myself. If you could discover the serial number of your client's piano, this would therefore be of great interest to me. I would also be very interested to know the length of the piano. You ask whether this is an interesting piano. I suppose it depends by what criteria one would make such a judgement, but these very early Bluthners are certainly quite rare.
My own Bluthner has a warmth to the tone which is very delightful, and is quite different from the "classic Bluthner mellow tone" which came later. I am sure that Jurgen is correct when he says that these pianos can be amazingly sweet. Thank you, this is more and better information than I had thought was available.
The pictures are just what I need. I will contact the owner and ask to stop by. I will look again for a serial number. I'll let you know what I find. Every extra decade makes a piano just that much more interesting. Grand pianos from this period are really rare in the US.
I have a Chickering from , and I have seen a few Steinways from this time. The Chickering has a strangely oblique structure to the sound board, the ribs and board running at off angles to the line of the bridge. The Steinways were practicing period bellying schemes as well. I want to recrown the Chickering to hear what this strange bellying sounded like. I'd like to recrown this Bluthner because it would be the oldest board we have ever repressed, whose structure is clearly a forbear of modern practice.
This piano just got a lot more interesting to me. Perhapse worth the extended effort to bring it back. I thought a few more photos might help to set the context. These two pictures show my piano, no. You might call this the "second generaton"; this sort of design was standard for Bluthner for serial numbers from about to about i. Almost everything is different from your client's "first generation" Bluthner; the music desk, the legs, the plate, the profile of the plate bars, the stringing.
Note the separate tenor bridge and the virtually straight-strung bass. These two pictures show the "third generation", which spanned serial numbers from about to about to approximately. These are the well known classic Bluthners with a "mellow tone". This is no. Most of the old Bluthners that one comes across are of the above type.
It is rarer to see a "second generation" instrument like mine. The "first generation" ones seem rarer still. I have never seen one myself other than in photographs. To encourage you, here is a picture of a restored one no.
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Copy Link to Clipboard. Share Post on Facebook. Share Post on Twitter. Share Post on Reddit. BDB Yikes! Semipro Tech. Joined: Mar Posts: 4, Vancouver B. This piano is much older than , and looks much too large to be the correct serial number. It is certainly earlier than my Bluthner of is a newer style than this , and probably earlier than This style of music desk is found on Bluthners numbered lower than about Similarly, the brass medallion indicates an early instrument, with serial number lower than perhaps about I have photographs of number which looks very similar perhaps identical to this instrument.
On these early Bluthners you should look for the serial number in the following places. You should also look at the back of the action cavity, on the right, where there is a paper label with the number; though I am not sure whether this was done for these early instruments.
And finally, you may find the number written by hand on the back or underside of separate wooden parts such as the music desk, the keyslip, the cheek blocks etc. I am aware of one early Bluthner, number , which was renumbered It is perhaps possible that this happened in the present case. But it is the original number that you need for the date, and I would expect that by looking in the above places you should be able to find it.
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