Bechstein from Palings

[rced@ozemail.com.au]

I have a Bechstein upright piano manufactured in 1912 and sent for sale to W H Paling and Co Ltd in Sydney. It has been in my family for many years, possibly since its arrival in Australia. It continues to make a very satisfactory sound. The serial number is 102,528. How can I establish to whom it was sold by Paling and Co.?

[Bill Kibby]

The short answer is that you cannot find this kind of information for most pianos. Have a look at my Archives page at http://www.pianogen.org

The only way is by tracking down the original archives for Palings, and tracing the 1912 stock records covering this particular piano. I don't know if they exist, but we are in England, and have no opportunity to travel to Australia to look up the information for you, so unless they turn out to be available online, we cannot help. Allans bought out Palings, but I don't think they have this type of information. Even in rare instances like Rudall or Charles Begg, whose stockbooks still survive, the details in those records are often sketchy and hard to read, they do not give much detail at all about the customers. The few surviving archives for manufacturers are sometimes better, I presume that is how you know who Bechsteins sent it to, but retail information is even harder to obtain.