Erard piano

[bryan907]

Hi Sir,
I live in New Zealand and have in my possession an Erard piano and cannot find a patent number on it the only number is 14.216 and this is stamped on all the removable pieces. I cannot locate any other number could you possible inform me if and where any other number would be. A dealer told me this piano is passed its playable use by date. This I find hard to believe. If possible could you give me a rough estimate as to its worth? and to its age? I know this is hard to do not being able to sight it but the piano is in excellent original condition except the red material behind the freet work has been replaced with a green satin.

Many thanks, I am looking forward to any information.

Yours

Anne M Bryan

[Bill Kibby]

There is no reason to expect a patent number on a piano.

Is the number really broken up by a dot, or did you put that in?

And what is the full wording on the piano, does it mention Paris or London?

Is it a grand or an upright?

The fact that that number is repeated in several places suggests that it should be the main number, and if it is a Paris Erard, this would suggest a date around 1835, but without photos, it is impossible to say whether this is likely. Can you post photos here, or email them to me? Nobody can guess the value or condition of a piano without tuning it. The action may have the year imprinted on its left-hand end, but you may need a technician to look for it.

A few years before I became involved with pianos, N.E. Michel published the first "Piano Atlas" of serial numbers, which later became the basis of the Pierce Piano Atlas: This work was a tremendous achievement, listing thousands of American and other names, but many entries say no more than can be found on the piano anyway, and quite apart from the appalling spelling, conflicting entries, duplicated misspelt entries, and the lack of proper cross-reference, an increasing number of the items he published are proving to be wrong or misleading, and this discredits the others. Early numbers for Erard and others do not correspond with the instruments. Information from the original archives of Erard and Pleyel shows that the published numbers are wrong in some periods. The Erard entries also make no allowance for the fact that instruments from their London factory bear a completely different sequence of numbers. I was the first to publish these.

[Bill Kibby]

Sorry, I looked at the wrong list, the numbers for Erard London suggest that it was made around 1874.