Steck Yacht Piano

[si1374]

Hi All.

My Family and I have just bought a Steck Yacht's/ship's piano and are very interested to find out any information we can about it. Its design has a foldup keyboard with what looks like rosewood veneer and little worn nickel-plated brass handles and foot pedals, in the Deco style. It has the ful range of keys and is seemingly extremely well made.

Any info as to how common this model was in the Steck range, where it was made ( as stamped in ink on the inside of the back board is Steck New york ,then a coat of arms, followed by Gotha) and how I could go about tracing its history would be warmly appreciated, Thanks in advance

Si

[Bill Kibby]

No archive material is available to trace individual Steck pianos, and the published dates of their serial numbers are misleading. No-one can trace the history of every piano once it leaves the factory. I have never found anyone who can define the term "Ship's Piano", but a Yacht piano is a smallish upright piano, usually with a 5 octave-keyboard, (61 notes) and a fold-away keyboard. What do you mean by "full range"? Have a look at the Datemarks link at pianogen.org

[si1374]

It seems unlikely that this particular piano would conform to the idea of being installed on a yacht, it is pretty much the same size and weight as a standard upright aside from the fact that the keyboard folds up into the main casing saving on space. However the wood used for the casing seems purposefully light weight in construction.

It has seven octaves (88 keys ) which in my ignorance is what I meant by "the full range of keys"

[Bill Kibby]

Sounds interesting, a folding keyboard in a normal upright. I didn't mean to suggest that you were ignorant, I simply wanted to clarify the number of notes, many people in the UK think 85 is the full range, because that's what we are used to in old pianos. There have been various pianos which hid away in pieces of furniture, looking like strange wardrobes or cupboard when the keyboard was put away. I haven't come across a Steck though. Any chance of emailing me a photo for our files? Also, did you have any luck with datemarks under the bottom keys? And have you seen the comments about Steck numbers at our Numbers link on pianogen.org yet?