John Spencer & Co Upright Piano

[pstickley]

Hi, I recently aquired a piano made by John Spencer and Co. The serial number is 14537 and wondered if anyone could give me any information on the date of manufacture and/or history of John Spencer factory - thanks

[Bill Kibby]

Yes, I can supply a printed booklet on the Spencer firm, or include allied firms like Murdoch. The published numbers don't strat until 1895, and seem slightly out, but I estimate that yours was made around 1890. Is there a model letter or number next to the serial number?

[pstickley]

Thanks Bill

Yes it does have and extra mark namely 4B under the serial number is this what you meant??

[Bill Kibby]

Yes, I'm trying to collect enough of them to make some sense of it all. The early ones have a model number, the slightly later ones a letter, but 4B is a new one on me! Where is the number? Some are on the top left edge of the case, with the model number at right-angles, some are near there, on the bridge where the strings cross it, and some are on the vertical wooden area above the tuning pins at the right.

[pstickley]

I'm no expert on piano's so excuse my description but if you remove the front top wooden panel (the one that has the music sheet stand atached to it, the serial number is in the top right corner with the 4B etched directly underneath. Does this make sense?

[Bill Kibby]

It makes perfect sense, interesting to me but not helpful to you, it is still likely to be around 1890, a few years after Spencer started.

[Bill Kibby]

Your photos didn't come through, this may be because they are too large for this forum. If you have logged in, you will see my details below, and you can send themt o me, but what we really need is for you to look inside the top of the piano and give the serial number.

[Bill Kibby]

Published numbers for Spencer begin with 25,000 at 1895, this may be wrong, and can be misleading because there are 2 sets, and they certainly don't work for most of the later Spencer- Murdoch pianos! In the first 26 years, their serial numbers reached a confirmed 52,000, suggesting a possible two thousand per year if the numbers went up logically. There are also some Spencer instruments which have much lower numbers. Some of these are more modern, others may date to Spencer's earliest years, from 1883 onwards. #1802 could be 1883, but unless it has a datemark somewhere, we cannnot tell from this number. See
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/datem ... ianos.html

[Bill Kibby]

1909: #52,000 is confirmed by an original receipt, and agrees with the published numbers, which are presumed to be correct after this time, so yours should be 1911. The Princess of Wales is mentioned after about 1902. Have a look at the Datemarks page on my own website.

[Southernsnookie]

I also have 4b in mine serial number 47794, would love to know the year it was made if possible

[Bill Kibby]

That should be abut 1906, but we can't be sure without seeing what the whole piano looks like.