Aucher Freres, Paris

[raymond]

They must have shipped many of Aucher Freres piano's to Australia.
I have an identical model No.1. To the photos of Ossie, Feb 5th , 2011.
It is in very good condition, plays well, Serial No. 17725. It was sold by Thomas, 98 Bourke St, Melbourne. Victoria. Australia. I assumed it was c 1860??. Any ideas on this one???? Raymond.

[Bill Kibby]

The last published number for Aucher is #17000 at 1860, but I do know that some of these numbers are wrong. Sometimes the pianos seem to be ten or twenty years later than the published information suggests, so I can't say how accurate any of them are, but I am guessing yours may be 1880-ish. As a result, people glibly state a date for their piano, which is taken as gospel, in spite of the fact that it is based on misinformation, so you should ignore dates that are quoted by certain people on the net. Any chance you could upload photos? Certainly, they exported to Australia and New Zealand, and some are labelled "Aucher Brothers". Is there any mention on the piano of the 1862 London exhibition, or any dates of medals?

[raymond]

Thanks Bill
Yes our model 1 numbers are further advanced than ossie serial of 17725 against 17154 and tuning panel no of 5030 against 4434 however they look identical even down to the side handles ours are missing but you can still see the outline which is the same . both pianoes were sold by melbourne australia retailers only two streets apart who were established in the 1860 timeframe they may have arrived on the same ship??
sending some photos now one shot is of the rear of the top panel it looks like an old stamp with a blue border could be annother clue?? anyhow our Aucher Freres is easy .on the eye and it has been around twice as long as the owner and it plays just fine.
Kind regards and merry xmas
Raymond
Our xmas day forcast temp 32c

[Bill Kibby]

Where did you send the photos?

[raymond]

Good Morning Bill

sent to forum@piano-tuners.org att Bill kibby missed the attachment section at the bottem of the screen it may have got mixed up with the xmas mail will send again if you cant locate it let me know.
Kind regards

Raymond

[Bill Kibby]

I am not involved with this website, except as a moderator for the forum. You can email me, but I have no access to wherever you are sending it. Your message seems to be several sentences run into each other, so I can't quite get the drift.

[Bill Kibby]

My estimate of this piano '#17725 would be about 1877, I doubt it is as early as 1860, which is what the published numbers suggest, but I have no evidence to support this. All I can say is that the published dates begin 25 years before the firm was established!

[Bill Kibby]

The following list of numbers (on the left) was sent to me some years ago by the late John Davis. How can I sum him up? He made billiard tables with no bounce, attempted piano polishing with a fad no bigger than his thumb, tried to cure cancer after a weekend course in hypnotherapy, and his various snippets of piano history are somewhat questionable. However, combining them with my own estimates of Aucher pianos, (on the right) they do seem to line up quite well in most cases.

1820 - Not making pianos yet.
1845 # 1
1847 # 1000
1854 # 2000
1859 # 4000
1868~ ..........#6000
1872 # 8000
1872~ ..........#13600
1877 #12000
1882 #16000
1883~ ..........#16200
1885~ ..........#17100
1888 #20000
1894~ ..........#17200
1897 #26000
1905 #32000
1912 #40000
1916 # 4552 according to Begg's stock records. If this really is the main number, it may be that production was taken over by another factory.

My own list is illogical, bearing in mind that some of the pianos appear to have been made identically, but I have evidence that Bord's pianos were up to 6 years out of sequence leaving the factory, so perhaps Aucher's were too. I would be grateful if anyone out there has real, hard evidence about genuine, definite dates of Aucher numbers, such as actual dates inside the pianos, or documents of sale.