Erard Concert Grand Piano Serial No 101964

[sparrow1989]

Hi

Based upon advice found on your history page I contacted the museum of musique in Paris they have informed me that my mother's Erard piano was manufactured in Paris and sold in 1912 to a Mr Addington in London.

My mother was taught by Cimbro Martin at the Guild hall School of Music and I am trying to establish its history to date. I understood that at some point in time it was won in a competition and had some connection to the Goldsmith university

Do you have any idea if this Mr Addington is of any renown in piano playing circles of the time.

Many thanks

Julie Savage

[Bill Kibby]

Personally, I have no more facilities than you for looking up musicians, so it's probably all down to Google.

Often, the original purchaser may be a dealer, but I have no Addington on my London lists of the period.

[Phiphi]

You can look up the Erard archives which have been scanned by the Cite de la Musique. Just enter Erard archives in Google and you can then get to the workshop records (Registres d'Atelier) and the commercial records.

The workshop records are listed by serial number, and thus chronological order, and are easy to get to. Until the beginning of the XXth century, the pianos for British clients were made for "S & P Erard a Londres". A bit later, they were made for Mr W. Adlington, who probably became the official importer. My Erard 0 No 101909 was sold through him. I tried to search details on Adlington with Google, but didn't find anything but old paper cuttings advertising Erard pianos.

I started to go through the commercial records, but they are listed by client's name as well as chronological order, and I didn't find an entry for S & P Erard or Adlington yet. It's a needle in a haystack. I don' think that we will be able to find who where the clients for our pianos. The commercial records are intersting to look at. Many of the clients were well known musicians, nobility (french or foreign), or ocean liner companies. You can also see some pianos bought by Mr Something, to be delivered to Ms something-else. Those French...