Eberhardt pianos

[Bill Kibby]

Very little is known or published about Eberhardt, some are German, some American, Some may even be British. Emil Hirsch imported some to London from Germany a century ago, but I can't see enough of your piano to guess how old it might be. If you know how to remove the action (the working parts of the notes) safely it may have the action makers' name and number on the rear, and we may be able to date the piano.

[ForBene]

Hi -

I am in Australia, thinking of buying an Eberhardt I have found recently which is clearly very similar to the one shown in your photograph. The panelling and flower design are slightly different but clearly it's the same maker and of similar vintage.

Like you, I've had no success in finding any information on the Net about this piano. I can tell you it's overstrung and overdamped, assume yours will be the same.

If you've got any further with your research, I'd be grateful to hear from you.

Cheers,
Robert

[Bill Kibby]

Have a look at "Gen about pianos" at pianogen.org

[ForBene]

Thanks Bill for the 'links' - I found them very interesting, though at the end I felt I was no closer to unlocking the mystery of Eberhardt's origins!

In the meantime I have discovered a similar piano for sale in Sydney whose manufacturer is listed as 'Boyds Ltd. of London'. So I'll go back through your links to see if Boyds are there somewhere.

[Bill Kibby]

There are items on Boyd in this forum, or you can contact me by searching for the word pianogen. Reports are always available for antique pianos, but they are not free!

[ebbie]

My grandfather emigrated from Bavaria to Illinois, USA in 1880. At some point he established a piano factory in Chicago where he manufactured Eberhardt upright and player pianos. After his death in early 1900s the factory was taken over by the Reinhardt piano co. My father and his brother sold these pianos in Michigan. I am looking for information about the Eberhardt piano. We had an upright in the 1930s, but my father gave it away.

[Bill Kibby]

Thanks for that interesting information about the american Eberhardt pianos. The one illustrated above might be a London piano of about a century ago, but it may be one of the german ones.

[ebbie]

Glad for the reply. I suspected that there were European Eberhardt pianos. Where could I find out more about them? My grandfather was a cabinet maker in Oberlauringen, Unterfranken, Bayern.
I am trying to find a Chicago source that might have more info.
Ed Eberhardt

[Bill Kibby]

As you can see from my response above, I have no answer to that one, except that some were imported by Emil Hirsch, London, and it may be an alias used by him for pianos from a german wholesaler.

[julian gardner]

hi, we have an eberhardt upright piano, identified as 'berlin 7614' just inside the lid. it has a very nice inlaid case. could anyone give us an idea of its age? is it saleable?

[Bill Kibby]

If you have a look through the items above, you will see my answers.

[IQDave]

If you are looking for information on Eberhardt-Hays Music company. They were located in Wichita, Kansas, USA. The music store was open for about 25 years and they sold Player pianos as well as regular ones. I still have a few pictures of the store as my great-grandfather Erwin Henry Eberhardt was the President. His partner was Frank D. Hays. I believe the date ranges would have been between about 1902-1927. I know the store was open as of 1904-1905 due to the McAvoy's Wichita City Directory Vol. XV.
If anyone has recently seen an Eberhardt-Hays piano still around, I would love to know where it is.

Thanks.

[Tom Allan]

For many years I played an Eberhardt upright. The beautiful walnut case was marked 'Eberhardt - Berlin'. The piano had its candle stick brackets though the sticks themselves had disappeared. It had been in the family since the early years of the 20th century.

I made inquiries about its origins and was told (I cannot recall the details of the organisation) that although the name sounded German there is also a Berlin in the USA; indeed, there seem to be several!

Anyway, it was a lovely instrument with a beautiful tone, especially in the bass. I enjoyed playing it very much - though, sadly, it is no longer in the family.

Tom

[Ranada]

I have a Eberhardt and Hays piano and it says inside of it Special Chigago - Wighita lol not sure what it means or how old it is do have a serail number tho was want to sale it if you could help ?

[Bill Kibby]

Sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.

[Ranada]

Found some info on this piano the guy who made it is Foster Armstrong it is a upright Piano made in 1910-1920 it runs around $800 to $2,500 and looking to sale it

[Colin Nicholson]

Ranada

If you look at the recent post about the Lipp piano, the new member has clearly downloaded 2 photos of their piano, showing the serial number. Can you do the same?
This way there is no guess work and we can hopefully give you a rough idea of age.
See the post ''How to upload a image'' at the top of the history topics on how to download your photos.

[Ranada]

I try to upload a photo it would not let me

[Colin Nicholson]

make sure it is JPG format when you save it, and not TIFF or GIF, and if needed resize to about 10X15cm.

It may also be better to start a new page.... click on ''New Topic'' .... this will save us sifting through many years of previous posts. ''Post reply'' is generally to further an existing enquiry, or perhaps just include a general comment like .... ''nice piano'' ! Your enquiry may also be lost amongst other enquiries way-down on the page.

Whether you are using a digital camera, camera phone, iPod etc.... when you download it onto your PC (not directly onto here) .... dont forget to check the size, resolution and the format type. Here is an example:-
Size: 10cm X 15cm (recommended)
Resolution: Around 300 DPI (or less)
Format type: Save under JPG

[Bill Kibby]

As I have said before, I don't know anyone whose software uses inches or DPI, it usually works in pixels, and the size and the number of dots per inch depend on how big you print it. It is usually a good guess to reduce the image to 25% of its original size if it is too big for the forum. This can easily be done in photoshop or the paint program.

You are unlikely to get hundreds of dollars for it over here.

[Colin Nicholson]

I think I was trying to make it a simple explanation for our friend with limited English.
I myself work in both modes! .... I agree with what you say, but I think the main thing I wanted to bring across was the size of the image, and what format to save it in. The 'resolution' is a personal thing I suppose, more for printing purposes, and this depends on the initial camera settings. The wording DPI also refers to the quality of the photo, depending on the size - and I think it automatically increases when I decrease the size of the photo - hence 'squashing' the dots into a finer picture..... but I think this may be a bit technical for others! ?

On Photoshop Elements (which I have), if I just upload an image direct from my camera, it comes up at a whopping 123cm X 90cm (or thereabouts) .... and it shows both the pixels per inch (or cm), - which I am more accustomed to, and working with photography (and adding borders/ layers etc) .... its best to stick to around 300 pixels per inch - I think coz I have sort of memorised that figure in my head, but I can then work in cm when changing the size, and PS elements allows you to do both.

I think the main thing I was trying to bring across was the size and format to save in. I suppose the pixels will automatically adjust themselves. In the image below, I have screen shot a typical screen showing image size. Naturally, the size is way too big, hence the pixels are very few - 72 DPI. Therefore I think the general term used for the 'quality and overall finish' of the image is down to the ''resolution'' - the collective term for image size and pixels combined. Alot of it is a matter of taste, and I appreciate that if an image is sent either 72, 96 or 300 DPI - it may not make much difference on here.... but a big difference when printing.

I'll probably need to ''brush up'' on my terminology - it can be confusing to others working in metric & imperial!!.... but I'm used to it.

[bilbreyt]

I have an Eberhardt-Hays Upright piano with Serial # 40201 in the United States. It was built in the fourth quarter of 1915. The first serial number used in 1915 was 37800, and there were 3200 pianos built in 1915. The pianos were manufactured by Foster-Armstrong Company. Eberhardt-Hays Company was a retail music store with locations in Kansas and Illinois. It has acoustic pianos manufactured for their stores by the Foster-Armstrong Piano Company.