Date of Kaps baby grand

[Topsyjones]

Hi - I have recently acquired a Kaps baby grand piano. It looks approximately 1900 - 1920 and has the serial number 17952. I was just wondering how I could look this number up in order to date it accurately please?

[Bill Kibby]

I am grateful to the Castle Museum, York, for copies of a list of piano serial number dates compiled by Mr D.R.Homan, a piano tuner from Scunthorpe. Most of these lists end around 1935-6, so we imagine that they were collected around that time. Some agree with other published numbers, some do not! Names include Kaps, and those numbers are similar to those published by Pierce, etc., often advancing at a thousand per year, but the main number may be difficult to find in a Kaps piano, and shorter numbers are not too helpful, for example, Charles Begg's stockbooks show #4284 to have been on sale in 1915. Some numbers collected by another tuner, Mr Oxley, agree with Homan's list.

The number suggests that your piano was made in 1894, but without photos, I can't say if this is likely. If you know how to remove the action safely, it may be marked with the action makers' name and number, and I may be able to date this. Otherwise, ask your tuner to look.

[Topsyjones]

Thanks for the information. Attached are some photos.

[Bill Kibby]

The piano looks about 1894, and I would guess that is right. Paterson & Sons changed their name a few times, but that particular version of the company title "Paterson & Sons" was in use by 1851, and continued well into the 1900s, so that particular version of the name does not help much with dates.