Petrof Upright 1935-1940 Rough Guide Value for insurance

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Hello all,

http://imgur.com/a/0fGAK

Apologies for my first post being a request, but I'd like to get a rough idea of the value of this piano. I would never dream of selling it, it was given to me by a dear friend when she moved to a care home. She was a piano teacher so it has had quite a lot of use. She even tried to teach me a little when I stayed over!

The reason for the value is insurance. The family said it was only a few hundred. However, the piano tuner yesterday looked up the serial number in a book and told me it was built between 1935 and 1940 with his guess being 1937. He was able to tune it pretty easily as sadly it hadn't been played much recently.

It has some interesting features as pointed out to me by the tuner. The left two pedals apparently duplicate functionality. The middle is a practice pedal that locks the hammers closer together but the left does a similar thing. The inside looks gorgeous and surprisingly colourful. So much so, I've decided to keep the case and lid off and cover it with a dust sheet when I'm not playing.

Given it's age and condition (please see photos, I can some more if needed) would anyone be kind enough to give a rough price. To the nearest £500 would be fine. If it's more than £500 I will have to tell the family in case they need to sell it. Given the care costs they are paying, the money might be useful in the future.

Many thanks in advance!

[Colin Nicholson]

Thanks for your enquiry.

We are unable to give valuations on this forum (as stated above in the blue box), no matter how rough. For an insurance valuation on your piano, you will need to contact either a "piano auctioneer" (who only auction pianos), or a piano retailer/ piano shop, and ask to make an appointment for a face-to-face inspection. Your insurance company will then need to receive a properly headed document with all the piano details on (including a photo THEY have taken), to be submitted for insurance, then added to your home contents. Valuation for selling at a later date is a separate subject and usually not as high as an insurance valuation. The pedals are also irrelevant.

A typical inspection will need to assess the overall condition, structural condition of the wrest plank, soundboard, mechanism, keyboard and cabinet .... again, different to a piano tuning visit. If you are unsure who to contact, ring your piano tuner for the nearest piano technician/ piano shop etc who can help you.... and there would be a fee for this service.

If you have it insured, then at a later date need to make a claim, similar to car insurance, the policy would probably only cover things like water damage, fire, theft.... but would not cover negligible things like central heating or direct sunlight or extreme cold conditions. However, the insurance "amount" is not an open ticket for selling it at that price.... you could try, but in most cases, mid-range pianos aged over 40 years old do not fetch good money, and depreciate quickly in value, unless restored fully and sold within a few months.

An assessment for insurance would take about one hour on-site, then a further few hours drafting a document and researching value.... and could cost in the region of about £100.00, depending on your location.


Hope that helps