WH Barnes upright again

[anima]

Hey, I'm sorry I am going into this again, but i'm trying to find out more about where my piano comes from and of course how old it could be. I've been searching google for past 5 hours going through forums and various websites and found there is very little information. Last forum topic i found was a little old so i'm hoping that now someone might know a little more.
Ok, so here's the story. This piano was given to my by one of regular customers in a pub i used to work. He said his father used to play it but he died and no one wants to keep the piano so i can have it. I was a bit anxious since i haven't seen it until the day of the pick up and it made me worried i could be paying lots of money for transport of piano which is not working. It says on the front "WH Barnes" and the oxford street address just above the top keys. i tried to find a serial number. First, on the inside i have found a card of a piano tuner.Then on the back of the piano i found a number "P18860" looked like it was 'carved' in the wood and right above it a letter "S" which i think was writen with a pencil. Afterwards i have taken everything i could from the front and by the right side i found something that i suppose was |3|LL and finally on the back of where all the hammers are a label with another number "122171" and written "Manufactured by John Malcolm & Co, London". I have found very brief information about John Malcolm on some on this website: http://tardis.dl.ac.uk/FreeReed/English ... 0000000000
i still don't know much so i hope someone will be able to help me.

Btw. this is the most amazingly sounding piano i have ever played. extremely soft and pleasant sounds.

[Bill Kibby]

I am sorry, I get so many enquiries about Barnes, I don't know which one was you. If you had gone straight to my own website, and looked at the Numbers page, you would have read that numbers preceded by the letter P, imprinted into the wood with a metal stamp, often indicate a stock number of a dealer who sells pianos and other things. Barnes was a retailer who bought in pianos from various anonymous wholesalers, and sold many of them under his own name, or under various aliases. At the bottom of the same page, you would have found the dates of John Malcolm's numbers. Malcolm was well-known for making harmoniums (reed organs) and I have one of these. He also made piano actions. The number suggests that the piano was completed around 1936, and the fact that it has a Malcolm action suggests that it was probably made by Murdoch, but have a look at my Datemarks page.

[anima]

i did go to your website,and to many other websits. i went though so much information that after all i got really confused and didn't even know what i was reading about. Thank you for all the information. I really appreciate it a lot.