My first Piano

[1sttpiano]

hi there ive had a good read around this wonderful little informative site :), i have what i think is a shenstone & co piano,as i found that stamped into the side of the first key,i know nothing about piano's until last night when i read your site until the early hours,there is a serial (i think) stamped into the wood on the top right,under the lid,in big old fasioned numbers 71785,or 71705,as the 0 is small,but i think the 8 punch has lost its bottom of the 8,so only the top half of the 8 is left,i have took a couple of not so good pics as the location i have it,is very restricted for good photos,i would apreciate,any help dating,and if it is indeed the make i think,there is notes penciled in on the piano,i hope the camera has captured this. i will get more photos this after noon,thankyou in advance.neil

[Gill the Piano]

Shenstone were the firm who made the keys. A lot of pianos were assembled with keys from one place and the action from another. Bill on the history thread will tell you when Shenstone were in operation, but I think they were around a long while. When you took out the end key - the one with Shenstone on it - did you see a pencilled date? Or perhaps a label on the keyframe underneath that key? That might tell you the date when it left the factory.

[1sttpiano]

yes there is pencil marks,il take a photo in macro,and see what we can discover,thanks,im gonna remove the back cloth tmw too :)

[1sttpiano]

upon close examination,there are 2 sets of initials,on 1part and more underneath,look closely,i dunno,if this helps me,determine who makes it.i have a broken rib atm,so cant really move it to get the back cover off :(

[Colin Nicholson]

If you remove the bottom panel, there may be a name or date there - sometimes cast into the iron frame. Pencil markings. initials etc are not always reliable for a piano dated around 1900-1910 - these are usually just initialled to say they have been checked by QC. Looking at the casework, this piano has been completely stripped of its old polish, and the centre panels wooden panelling dont match the original veneer - so perhaps these originally had some kind of carving or wood inlay.

In many cases, the original decal has been removed in the stripping process, leaving the piano un-named - sorry to say. Also, many piano manufacturers added their own names to pianos - some sounding German to increase their sale potential.

Name decals can easily be purchased to give your piano a new name - so maybe think along the lines of naming your new puppy!!

In a recent piano I part-exchanged, it had a date stamp on the underside of the mechanism lever - but this may be risky to an old worn out mechanism. You also have a few issues with your hammers that need sorting out. As it goes though - it looks English, straight strung/ over-damped (bird cage action) - and looks reasonable inside at a first glance.

Google "Stencil pianos" if you want to know more about un-named pianos.

[vernon]

early 1920s. open plank etc