F Ehrbar

[Guyonaroll]

Hi

I have an F Ehrbar Grand Boudoir piano, which I bought at auction for Ł100 about 15 years ago, I think its 1920's, both my children learnt and then taught on it, and I play it daily, but its now in need of restringing, new pegs or whatever as it stubbornly refuses to stay in tune anymore, french polishing and a little bit of repair to the veneer, its all a but tired looking and the question is - is it worth refurbishing?

Anyone any ideas? Many thanks...Guy
SE London

[Bill Kibby]

Beware of basing your date on the published serial numbers, which are for G. Ehrbar, Berlin, rather than F. Ehrbar, Vienna. The questions you ask cannot be answered without testing the piano and examining it first-hand, but if the tuning pins are loose, it will cost over a thousand pounds to replace them and restring it, and that may well be more than the instrument is worth, quite apart from the other work. Is there any chance you could email photos to me for our files? My advice is to spend your money on a finished product that you can assess and play, rather than on some vague idea of what it might be like when restored.

[Guyonaroll]

Beware of basing your date on the published serial numbers, which are for G. Ehrbar, Berlin, rather than F. Ehrbar, Vienna. The questions you ask cannot be answered without testing the piano and examining it first-hand, but if the tuning pins are loose, it will cost over a thousand pounds to replace them and restring it, and that may well be more than the instrument is worth, quite apart from the other work. Is there any chance you could email photos to me for our files? My advice is to spend your money on a finished product that you can assess and play, rather than on some vague idea of what it might be like when restored.

Hi, many thanks for coming back to me so quickly - I will send you photos for your file with pleasure if you send me details of where to send - my piano tuner identified it some years ago and gave the date, can't remember exactly the date but it was 1920's, he valued it at that time for about Ł2-3k, but I'm not really sure how accurate the value he gave was. This is probably the usual dilemma for owners of piano's, keep it or get rid of it. What do people do if they want to get rid of it - are they saleable or do they just dump them?

Kind regards
Guy

[Bill Kibby]

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