Keith - I've just seen your enquiry which was forwarded to the
Mechanical Music Digest [980616]. I was on vacation in Spain.

I had an 1878 concert grand, originally sold in New York as it was
not in the 1870s London sales book rescued by Rex Lawson when all
their records were dumped in a skip about six years ago (they claimed
to have copied them all onto disk).

The piano was identical in appearance to the ornate one played by
Liszt in London in the 1880s. I bought it originally for =L=1200 ($2200
then) from a friend in 1976. It had a fine bass but the treble was
excessively "plinky" and I tried to rectify this by getting it
restrung and the soundboard repaired in 1977 by a restoration
specialist in London's Camden Town.

He used Steinway craftsmen who were moonlighting and were disaffected
from what Steinway were doing at the time. They had another 1878
grand in, exactly like mine but 200 later and its treble was a little
better, but not much. They eventually sold it for =L=2500 ($4500)
restored.

On both pianos the restoration made no difference at all to the tone,
and I later discovered that Steinway revolutionized the treble
performance in 1879 by thinning the soundboard at the treble end
and mounting it differently. The workshop said that Steinways didn't
pick up a decent resale price until about 1919 onwards - it always
depended on what they sounded like and the Edwardian ones are often
rather plummy and dated.

In the end my friend had the Steinway back about 12 years ago in
direct exchange for a superb 1905 Bechstein which I still have - and
play with a full-scale "push-up" (roll-reading keyboard player). Say
=L=4000 ($6600 at today's exchange rate).

Of course that is without your special history. If I were a museum
I'd probably want documentary supporting evidence before paying
extra, and as an individual wouldn't pay extra anyway !

Best wishes and good luck

Dan Wilson, London     (copy to MMD)