Help me identify my Kirkman Piano

[willymanilly]

Hi there,

I recently purchased a Kirkman piano at auction for a fantastic price, it's a lovely piece of furniture with alot of character so I don't really mind if it is playable or not.

Anyway, got it delivered today to my house and I've fallen in love with it!

Most of keys worked well apart from a few and the tuning sounded alright, so we removed the keyboard and had a cleanout of the hammers and fixed up a few that had been rubbing and glued back one that was snapped. Anyway we managed to fix all but three keys.

Two of the keys are missing the hammer mechanisms (see photos) and another is missing the mechanism that is connected to the soundboard. The piano has obviously had some work done in the past (150 years) but we are not sure when.

Condition is average, there are pieces of wood missing and a few marks and knocks over the piano, however that's character building. It's amazing to think that this baby was built around 150 years ago :)

In the photos i've included the numbers and markings that I could find, however I have been told the piano is circa 1840 but I'm not really sure and would like to get a little more information about its history.

Anyway, I will be getting this restored in the near future (unless you guys say it's not worth it).

I'm located in Australia and Grand pianos sell for a heap over here when they have been restored, however nobody really wants to buy one that hasn't been done, unless it's a Steinway etc.

[Bill Kibby]

Thanks for the photos. It wouldn't be as early as 1840, but 150 years is possible. If the number on the action is the serial number, that would suggest 1865, which seems reasonable. Are there any other numbers anywhere?

We have no proof of the accuracy of the published numbers for Kirkman, but they seem to be about right on the Victorian ones. Sadly, no archives survive to look up individual pianos.

We can't advise you about the piano's condition from here, or the advisability of restoration, you need a tuner-technician to look at it on the spot.

Ordinary run-of-the-mill pianos of this age rarely justify the expense of major overhauls, but the tuner may be able to find a quick fix. Missing parts cannot be ordered, they would have to be made especially. It is common practise to move faulty parts to the end notes, or use end notes to replace missing ones, so you may find that one or two hammers are not in sequence.