Carl Ecke Berlin Date estimations

[Deon]

Hi guys, I am in South Africa, I am busy fixing/restoring a Carl Ecke Berlin Piano and I was wondering if you could assist with a date. Colour is Ebony, the number stamp inside is 7926, is there also a way to trace its Origin?? Any help will be appreciated.

[Bill Kibby]

My Numbers page at pianohistory.info explains that dating pianos purely on the basis of numbers is often not as simple as it seems, especially as most pianos have several numbers inside. The number suggests about 1867, but there aren't many German pianos around from that early. I don't think there are any archive records surviving for Ecke. With an old German piano, the best hope is that if you look on the back of the action, it may be marked with the action makers' name and number, and I may be able to date this. Can you post photos to show what the whole piano looks like on the outside? If it mentions the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition, it was made after that event.

[Deon]

Hi Bill, Thanks for the reply, I am attaching some other pics, let me know if you can see them.

[Deon]

Hi Bill here’s the photo of the front, I had a look for any other numbers but there are none, there are some inscriptions on the keys, I assume its when the piano was tuned, the latest one I can read is written in Pencil - 1942, the earlier dates are not readable.

[Bill Kibby]

The medal shown there is from the Antwerp Exhibition of 1885, so your piano was made after that event. The action remains your most likely source of a date. The other photos didn't show up.

[Kali]

Hi Bill,

I'm interested in your replies on the age of Carl Ecke pianos. I have one that was my great grandmothers. It's serial number, stamped inside the piano on the top left hand side, is 1110. Which from what I've read, puts it as an early build, however it also has gold stamps from a furniture exhibition in Melbourne in 1880.
I can't seem to upload any photos...I press 'insert image' ...and get this....
Can you share any thoughts on it's history?
and happy to upload a photo if I can work out how :)
Kali