Erard Piano #1665

[mfa9826]

I was wondering if anyone could help me find out some information about a piano I have. It is an upright Erard with the serial number 1665, it has pedals. The front of the piano reads Erard London

[Bill Kibby]

There is a danger that someone will quote Erard London numbers, and get you excited by telling you this is very old. The problem is that this number seems too low to be the proper serial number, and it is quite likely that there are other numbers inside, most pianos have several numbers. It is probably Victorian. If you know how to remove the action safely (the working parts of the notes) it may be marked on the left-hand end with a date. How many notes does it have? If you can email photos to me, I may be able to tell you more.

[Bill Kibby]

Sadly, Erards' London archives are lost, and may never be retrieved, so any pictures or info about this piano would be of great interest.

bill@pianogen.org

[mfa9826]

This piano was brought from Palma de Majorca, Spain around 6o years ago and the previous owner said that the piano once belonged to George Sand (Aurore Lucile Dupin) who had received the piano from Chopin.

[Bill Kibby]

I believe the piano Chopin gave George Sand was a Pleyel.

[Bill Kibby]

Hi! You did offer to send more photos, and it is difficult to say much when I haven't seen what the whole piano looks like. Does the keyboard fold away like a Yacht Piano? I still feel that there must be other numbers inside somewhere, and these might be the key, athough the piano looks more like 1880s than 1840s.