Behning & Sons Upright

[villa]

Hi, I own a Behning & Sons Upright piano Serial number 47118. Behning & Sons New York is cast on the soundboard in the upper right hand corner. Can anyone please advise on the age of this piano? Condition is excellent - un restored.

[Bill Kibby]

The number suggests 1920.

[PianoVooDoo]

Hi, Have been researching the Behning & Sons name. I have one myself.

The firm has a rich history and seems to have been started in 1864 under previous name Behning & Klix, then was Behing and Diehl in 1873 and continued until the addition of Henry Behning Jr. in 1880, which produced the final name of Behning and Sons, NY.

I have yet to uncover a serial number V. year scheme but would appreciate the link if anyone finds it.

The serial number on my Behing is 23554 with a date written above 1885. 1925 is forty years later and the SN of 47118 represents 23564 unit numbers (serial schema anyone?) assuming they were made and labeled sequentially, one by one. Possibly serial numbers were some sort of code with production numbers at the end, like a VIN? Not sure about that, need more info.

So if they started with Serial No. 00001 in 1880 and were up to 23554 five years later, then they are producing 4710 pianos a year but I doubt that is true since they'd already been making pianos since 1864 and likely kept the serial numbering system intact. And I doubt they had the production capabilities of almost 5 thousand units per year. (still researching production quantities). But, by laws of average five years later they would have been up to Serial No. range of 47000. So it may be older than 1920's, maybe 1890 or so. Do you have a picture?

[Bill Kibby]

They began much earlier, 1861. The Pierce Piano Atlas lists Behning numbers, and 23554 should be about 1887, but have a look at my Numbers page at pianogen.org