Walter Smith co Piano Bolton

[Nancy Reese]

Help needed researching my piano

[Bill Kibby]

Walter Smith appears to have started his business around 1905, and appears to have been a retailer, rather than a true maker. The business seems to have been one of the many casualties of World War Two.

[Nancy Reese]

Thank you for your response. 1 additional question. Is there any way to determine the actual brand of the piano since Walter Smith is a distributor or the quality of his piano's?

[Bill Kibby]

In the late 1800s, and early 1900s, most British pianos were made in the London factories, and even when the pianos did not have the real makers' names on them, it was still useful to put "London" on the front. Some manufacturers did not promote themselves directly to the public, and preferred to produce pianos anonymously to retailers and tuners, under various aliases, so it is very difficult to identify the sources of such pianos, unless there are marks hidden inside. I canm compile a report of design and approximate age for twenty pounds, but this will not always identify the maker. Sometimes, the anonymous wholesalers ended up being more famous in their own right than the names on the pianos, like Kemble, Brasted, Bansall, Windover etc.. Read the Datemakrs page at the link below.