Ritmuller pianos

[martincpowell]

is there any method of assessing the age of a piano.My Ritmuller dates at to the early 1900s from the history we are aware of and may be before. Also as it is really the only piano I have played in my 50 + years. How does it rate as far as uprightgrands are concerned

[Bill Kibby]

The best definition of an Upright Grand is - any instrument which has the words "Upright Grand" on the front. Ritmuller made reasonable instruments, but many are now suffering from old age. We have some dates of Ritmuller serial numbers, so see if you can find one easily visible by opening the top.

[martincpowell]

Thanks for that the number I have found is 17430 does that make any sense

[Bill Kibby]

The number suggests 1907.

[Robmon]

Hi I have a Ritmuller baby grand the serial number is 357341 can you tell what age it is.

thanks

[Bill Kibby]

Possibly around 1960, but dating pianos purely on the basis of numbers is always risky without photos, as explained at
http://pianogen.org/numbers.html

[Robmon]

Possibly around 1960, but dating pianos purely on the basis of numbers is always risky without photos, as explained at
http://pianogen.org/numbers.html

Photo's attached if it helps.

[vernon]

this one dates from the 1920s whatever the serial number says

[Bill Kibby]

Yes, as Vernon says, this is not a 1960 piano, but then I think I did say that dating pianos purely on the basis of numbers is not an exact science.

Ask your tuner to inspect the action, to see if it is marked with the action makers' name and number.

[Robmon]

I'll make a point of it next time it's tuned, thanks very much for the info guys

[Bill Kibby]

This style of double leg is known in France as double pied - literally "double foot", but an English term is GATELEG. They don't look much like gates, but they do resemble the legs of gateleg tables.

They first appeared around 1870, and were still used in the thirties, my guess is that this one is from about 1921.