Collard & Collard walnut grand piano

[JimD]

Hi
My elderly parents have a C&C walnut grand piano, we’re not sure what to do with it. I’m trying to work out how old (& rare) it is. It has a registration number of 10630 which I think means it’s 1860s? There’s also three numbers 221 on the music frame which I expected to match the 10630. The internet is a wonderful thing but completely lost trying to trace its history. Can anyone help? Jim

[Bill Kibby]

If you have a look at
http://www.pianohistory.info/numbers.html
you can read that Collards are one of the most difficult to date by numbers, a great deal of nonsense is published about them, and my best guess is that it might be around 1872. The short number does not help, and the archives were lost in a fire, so nobody can trace an individual Collard piano. Without seeing it, I have no reason to imagine it would be rare, and here in England, most unrestored antique pianos have very little value, and I am offered several each year for nothing.