Hoelling and Spangenberg

[fisminex]

Hi,
I live in Australia and have just purchased an old Hoelling and Spangenberg upright piano.It also has Carnegie and sons embossed under the lid,I think they were piano importers in Sydney/Melbourne.Above the tuning pins is written Holling ( 2 dots above the o ) and Spangenberg Hof-Piano forte-Fabrik ZEITZ and the number 20570 along with a coat of arms and a dozen or so picture medallions of various awards won I assume.There is also a circular ink stamp which is unreadable apart from the word "mark" On the back of the piano written in some kind of white indelible marker is ADELAIDE.
Any help in dating this piano would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Neil.

[Bill Kibby]

It is quite common for german names to be altered to avoid accents, often by adding an E instead. No dates of Holling & Spangenberg numbers are published, but they received a great many exhibition medals, and if any are mentioned on the piano, the following list will help to estimate the date.
1861 Prize medal.
1865 Prize medal.
1867 Prize medal.
1870 Prize medal.
1875 Prize medal.
1880 Prize medal.
See
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/reports.html

[fisminex]

Thanks Bill for the quick response.Some of the medallions shown are undated, but the ones with dates show:
1861
1865
1865
1867
1869
1870
1873
1875
1880
1881
so I guess that this piano was built after 1881.

Regards

Neil.

[Bill Kibby]

The only other likely clue is if the action (the working parts of the notes) is marked with the action makers' name and number, but this may involve removing the action, so it's probably a job for your tuner. See also
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/datem ... ianos.html

[Bill Kibby]

Coming back to exhibition medals, they also received one in 1885, so your piano is before this exhibition, and after the 1881 event. Logically, it must be close to 1883, although numbers in the 29,000 range seem to be ten or twenty years later.

[mattgrant]

I can offer a bit more help. We too own a Holling and Spangenberg piano, which we want to sell.

You can go to the companies website at:
http://www.hoelling-spangenberg.de/page ... e-eng.html

It does have a list of dates of manufacture.
The serial number on ours is 14701 which says it was made between 1872 and 1879