Aveling Piano

[Bisoneyes]

I hope somebody can help.

We have recently been given an Aveling piano. It is an up right and although not been loved in some time now has pride of place in our house.

We have searched this website and the net but can find no mention of this maker. The plate on the piano says Aveling London, with a further plate stating A J Wiseman Birmingham ( The seller I presume).

It seems to play in tune to our untrained ears. We have a tuner coming to visit it in about 3 weeks time to give it an MOT!

Can anybody shed any light on this piano's age and history.

Kind regards.
Lisa and Anthony

[Bill Kibby]

The name Aveling does not appear in any of my London lists, and my guess is that it was made by a London wholesaler and sold under the alias by Wiseman. See
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/piano ... iases.html

I'll see what I can find on Wiseman.

[Bisoneyes]

Thanks for checking. It appears to be a bit of a mystery then!

[Barrie Heaton]

Thanks for checking. It appears to be a bit of a mystery then!

There are 30 Aveling listed in the 1901 Census but none listed with pianos as an Occupation there was one Aveling who was a music teacher but not in London
See
http://www.census.pro.gov.uk/index.html

[Bill Kibby]

I have something nagging at my brain about Aveling Park Road, Walthamstow, but I can't find it yet!

[Bisoneyes]

Thanks for all your thought on this piano.We're doing some research on the Wiseman name.

[Bill Kibby]

I am still looking for both names, but there's a bit of a queue at the moment.

[Bisoneyes]

There is an old shop in Digbeth, Birmingahm that Has the name A E Wiseman above the door.

The shop is long since closed though.

[Bill Kibby]

E.T. Wiseman & Co. were at 56a Newton Street, Birmingham in 1928, described as "Pianos Makers", but it is unlikely that they actually made them, and they don't appear in the Music Trade Directories for 1914 or 1938, so perhaps your piano was sold in the twenties, somewhere between those two dates. Have you tried...
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/piano ... iases.html
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/datem ... ianos.html

[rochec1]

bisoneys...i seem to be having the same issue as you :( i too have an aveling london grand upright with what sounds to be the same markings as yours but i have had no look finding out anything about it

[Colin Nicholson]

Rochec1....

If you look at the dates from the previous posts, it is just over 9 years ago - so I doubt if anyone just above you (bisoneyes?) will reply to you - better to create a new topic under a new heading.

I think this subject has been exhausted to the point that there is no piano maker's name "Aveling" - and as mentioned by our expert Bill, the name is likely to be a wholesaler's name - or even possibly a street name. It was also very common to just make up piano names from names of composers, city/street names/ names of workers/ brothers etc.... if you google "Stencil Pianos" - this will give you some information about your genre of piano. Send a photo of your piano to us, and we may be able to date it for you. See "How to upload an image" at the top of the history page.

The term "grand upright" was a typical advertisement on old pianos to lure the potential customer into thinking they were buying a grand piano !.... (when often they were just straight-strung) so this is just a play on words.... similar to "the upright that thinks its a grand".... of course, there is no such thing.

Hope that helps


Colin