Any info on my Firth Piano

[scubydu]

Hi, I was wondering if you could give me any information at all on my Firth piano. It was given to my mother as a wedding present in 1976 and previous to that was used in the London Palladium as a rehearsal piano i think. The only marking I can find on it so far are Registered Design No 800114 794830 and on the inside it has a crown marking on it.

[Gill the Piano]

My initial instinct is that Firth is a stencil name (a fictitious name applied quite often when a piano is repolished and the original name erased) because it certainly looks like a stencil. Can you get any pics of a number inside the piano - often amongst the tuning pins at the top? It looks late 1940s/early 50s to me. Bill will doubtless know more. If the number inside amongst the pins has a K prefix it may be a Kemble made piano - it certainly looks like a few Kembles of my acquaintance!

[Bill Kibby]

If you look a little further down this page, you will see that Firth pianos were not the makers, they are thought to have just reconditioned pianos and put their name on them. There may be clues inside the piano so have a look at pianogen.org

[vernon]

It's obviously a pre-war piano " modernised" in the late 40s-50s. The curved top and curved columns are a giveaway.
It could be very old straight strung tho' could be overstrung.
These were sold by furniture shops like Cavendish etc much to the dismay of proper piano dealers.

[scubydu]

The only number I could find in the top is 5S975.

[Colin Nicholson]

That isn't a serial number, and I think the guys above need to see the inside mechanism of the piano.
As Gill & Bill say, the name "Firth" suggests its another name stuck on the piano. For a piano to bear an original name, in most cases the same should be on the fallboard and inside the piano near the tuning pins.

Simply open the top lid back fully, fold the music rest away; at either side, unclip the turnbuckles inside the top board, remove the front board completely and send a couple of pics of the mechanism/ numbers/ crests. Might help.

[scubydu]

Thankyou for everyone's replies. I found the number inbetween the tuning pins, it is K 58975. I will try and upload some more photo's at some stage.

[Bill Kibby]

The number preceded by K is a Kemble serial number, and indicates that they made it in 1937. There is brief reference to Firth Brothers at
http://www.pianohistory.info/edwardian.html
in which I point out that after the first 2 pianos, they bought them in from wholesalers, Kemble in this instance.

[DReed]

I have this exact same piano. It's made it's way all the way to Vancouver BC Canada, from the UK?? My dad bought it for me in 1979 or so.

[reviewexpress]

This is great information ...thanks for discussion about this lessons...

[phallyka]

The only marking I can find on it so far are Registered Design No 800114 794830 and on the inside it has a crown marking on it.


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