Joseph Wallis & Son Ltd

[ella274]

Hi i was wondering if you can help me, my mum has a piano that she is looking to sell but we dont know much about pianos or how much they are worth, it is a Joseph Wallis & Son Ltd London, Iron frame, full trichord, check action, could you please enlighten us as to what this means? We have found a number of 108659 by the hammers, is this the model number? Any information would be gratefully appreciated, Thanks Ella

[Bill Kibby]

Nobody can guess the value or condition of a piano without tuning it. No exact dates of Wallis serial numbers are available, this number is similar to one I used to tune from the 1890s, but most pianos have several numbers inside. "Full trichord" means that all the tenor and treble section has three strings per note. "Check Action" is a fairly meaningless term used on many pianos a century ago, "action" is the mechanism of the notes, and "check" is a part of the action of each note. By then, almost all pianos had checks.

[ella274]

Thank you very much for getting back to me, do you know where we can find out anymore information about when it was made? It would need quite a bit of restoration work done as few of the hammers are broken, do we need to find a specialist in Joseph Wallis pianos or can any piano dealer do this? Ella

[Bill Kibby]

You would be unlikely to find a specialist in one particular name, but any tuner-technician should be able to tackle it. Your best hope for dating the piano is finding clues inside it, follow the link below.

[NewAge]

Thank you very much for getting back to me, do you know where we can find out anymore information about when it was made? It would need quite a bit of restoration work done as few of the hammers are broken, do we need to find a specialist in Joseph Wallis pianos or can any piano dealer do this? Ella

When you speak of possible restoration would this be to enable yourself/family to retain and play the piano, or to assist in resale?
If the latter, be aware that the cost of even basic restoration could well exceed the value of the piano. As Bill states elsewhere on his site, "........without inspection by a tuner because if, for example, the tuning pins are loose, the repair may cost more than the value of the piano."

[Colin Nicholson]

Hi Ella

As Bill says, the term "Check Action" is pointless really, and just a term used loosely as a selling technique perhaps. All pianos have them, and the correct term for this part of the mechanism is the "Back check" - these are the small rectangular pieces of wood facing you attached to a thick wire, each with a thick piece of felt on (usually dark green - on the opposite side) - when you hold a note down, these parts then catch onto the back end of the hammer (another smaller square piece of wood with leather around it). These parts hold the hammer to prevent it from rebounding off the strings several times (or should do if adjusted correctly). If you remove the front of the piano, and play some notes firmly - holding them down, you will see what I mean. When you let go of the note, the back check then releases itself and allows the hammer to fall back against the rest rail; Its a bit like selling a car and saying "it comes with brakes" !!

[Bill Kibby]

It's interesting to note that "back-check" was regarded as an American term when I woz a lud, learning from the learned, and in the sixties, it was only used by people who learned their trade from American books! It's another example of language changing I suppose. After all, Robert Wornum invented what we call the Tape Check Action, and he called them checks.

The brakes analogy is almost up to the class of the famous bus analogy.

I'm just struggling with the Windows 7 search facility on my new laptop. Thousands of files, meticulously labelled, but invisible to the search button, yet the wretched machine insists that "indexing is complete"!!

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

Should have got a mac
Just kidding, each to their own and all that

[Bill Kibby]

Sorry, piano historians haven't got Mac money, but when I talk to people about computer problems, they often say "you mean PC problems"!

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

I bought a 2nd hand iMac from eBay and it's brilliant and wasn't silly money.
Beautiful, large screen, very clean and simple operating system. No daft menus and silly popups all over the place. Nothing to cause confusion, everything to promote happy and relaxed productivity.

Yes it takes some getting used to but it's worth the learning curve. Windows is hideous by comparison. Just my opinion though.

[Bill Kibby]

And many other people's opinion too, but I have too much on my plate already to start adding that chore, and I am not a fan of secondhand computers.

Many artists and musicians would never use a PC, my original decision was based on cost, and the fact that the majority of people I hear from are on PCs. Communication from Macs (especially photos) used to be a major problem, but that may have been solved now.

Anybody know how to sort my search? Sorry, I forgot, this is a piano history forum!