BOYD-LONDON

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 25 Sep 2005, 18:28

In music, the "Three Bs" are Bach, Beethoven & Brahms. In the piano trade generally, the "Three Bs" are Bechstein, Blüthner & Bosendorfer, except in London, where they are Barnes, Berry & Boyd, three large retailers who had many branches around London last century. Surprisingly, Bansall, Brasted, Barratt & Robinson & even Broadwood and Brinsmead didn't get a look in, although Bechstein, Broadwood & Blüthner were a popular trio of names in some old dealers' ads. I used to work for Berrys, and have tuned so many Barnes, Berry and Boyd pianos over the years that it would seem pointless to put all the details on file, but specific enquiries are welcomed. Boyd pianos were not all made by Boyd, and dating them purely by serial numbers is not reliable, no lists are published.

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 01 Oct 2005, 11:58

It's certainly amazing what we think we remember, but my item on Model Numbers at
http://www.uk-piano.org/piano-gen/piano ... mbers.html
explains that the Berry 758 was a 7-octave model introduced in 1958. Berrys never made an 8-octave model, hardly anyone ever has. The only advice I can give you is to advertise in London, I used to tune lots of 758 models when I lived there.