Hofmann & Czerny Grand Piano

SoniTheEchidna · Post by **SoniTheEchidna** » 14 Jan 2014, 22:28

Hey Guys

I'm located in Australia.

My family has a Hofmann Czerny piano. I am not sure if these photos are helpful, but I am trying to find out information on this piano. I do have more photos but I'm not sure it is good to load too many.

Mum informed me that the piano was purchased from a piano shop that had picked it up from a deceased estate. Dad told me that there were 3 used pianos to choose from and the piano shop owner told him that this one was the best buy and would last much longer than the other two pianos. I would say that he was right!

So, my father bought this piano as second hand over 40 years ago for 705 pounds (pre decimal currency in our country). So, that means it had to be purchased prior to 1966-1968. He remembers buying the piano and that the gentleman who sold it said that it was built in the 1900s. I have been to the Hofmann-Czerny website (http://www.hofmann-czerny.at/) and I saw that it had 1903 on the website.

So, I'm wondering if perhaps this may be one of the original pianos? I cannot find any physical information on the piano (like a serial number). I even went underneath it with a torch. However, this could be because it had to be restored a while back because the paint had started to craze on the piano. So, my parents paid to have it completely restored and restrung.

Mum and I measured it and I have attached a photo of the measuring tape. It looks to be about 168-169cm in length.

I have tried writing to the manufacturer but their website is in German and I don't speak German. I have tried using Google Translate but I have not heard back as yet.

The piano is still in excellent condition, has beautiful timbre and very light, expressive action. My Mum always keeps it covered and it is out of sunlight and it has a humidity controller installed underneath it. I believe it is in amazing condition IF it really was built in the 1900's!!!

Anyway, attached are some photos. Hope they are acceptable - I'm not a great photographer!

Any information at all would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Sonia

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 14 Jan 2014, 23:14

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "one of the original pianos".

Your photos don't give us any idea what the piano looks like.

If you google the name of the piano, you should have the opportunity to translate the website, but it doesn't seem a very good site, slow, unresponsive, errors, etc..

SoniTheEchidna · Post by **SoniTheEchidna** » 14 Jan 2014, 23:24

I did post 2 more photos but they have not come up!!! Not sure why! I'll try again.

I've had to covert the photos to a pdf because they were just over the 2MB allowance. Hope this works.

By "original pianos" I mean one of the early ones. I found more information on http://www.robertspianos.com/top-makes/ ... nn-czerny/ but they only mention from 1925 onwards. However, from what I understand they were in production from about 1903. If this piano was supposed to be made in the 1900's and production started then, perhaps this is one of the first pianos they made?

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 15 Jan 2014, 10:33

Part of the problem is that "1900s" has always meant the whole century, but now some people are starting to change the useage to mean the period 1900-1909, also known as the noughties.

There little no doubt your piano would be 1900s by the traditional definition.

Please don't convert images to pdf, it makes it virtually impossible to examine. edit or enhance them.

If your images are not showing, they are probably too big, and this is simple to fix in something like the paint program, where you can reduce them to 50% or even 25%.

SoniTheEchidna · Post by **SoniTheEchidna** » 15 Jan 2014, 23:01

Sorry about the photos. I thought I was doing the right thing by making them really small files as pdf's. So, I've redone them and will post two at a time.

I thought I'd better check what Mum meant without giving the game away. So I asked her if she meant the 1900's throughout or 1900-1909. She said when they purchased the piano in the late 1960's that the salesman had said that it was around 60-70 years old already and it was built around the turn of the century. Dad thought he had said 1900 or thereabouts.

I don't know if the soundboard is original. I thought that it had been replaced but Mum thought that it had be repaired. I would have to go back to the man who completely refurbished the piano to find out. I say that because it has "Hofmann" on the soundboard and I'm not sure if that was the original or if he painted it on. The insignia on the front of the piano is the original. I can remember that from before it was refurbished.