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MMD > Archives > January 2010 > 2010.01.15 > 04Prev  Next


Scholze Georgswalde DUCA Reproducing Piano
By John A. Tuttle

Hi All,  I received an email and some pictures from Ed Smith in Europe.
He has a Scholze-Georgwalde player piano and he'd like to identify the
player mechanism.  It appears to have expression capabilities, and it is
beautifully crafted. If you know the make of the mechanism, please post
a reply to the MMDigest and to Ed.  His email address, the pictures, and
his email are at  http://www.player-care.com/scholze-georgwaldes.html 

After doing some research for a roll format that uses 102 holes,
I found that the rolls the machine uses have to be the Philipps-DUCA
rolls.  From there I was able to find more information about the
DUCA reproducing player system.  The search at Google yielded some
interesting videos and other information.  By the way, watch out for
the "Pianola Forum" web site.  My browser security software caught and
removed a "threat" --

  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=philipps-duca&aq=f&oq=&aqi= 

Other references were found in "The Golden Age of Automatic Musical
Instruments", the "Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical Instruments,"
and "Player Piano Servicing & Rebuilding."

Still nice to look at the fine craftsmanship that went into this
machine.  Nowhere did I find any pictures that come close to the ones
that Ed sent to me (which are in the web page).

Musically,
John A Tuttle
Player-Care.com
Brick, New Jersey, USA

 [ Across the top of the cast iron frame is "Elektrisches DUCA - Welt
 [ - Kunstspiel-Piano Scholze's Söhne Pianofortefabriken Georgswalde".
 [
 [ The branch factory "Scholze's Sons" was established in 1914 in
 [ Georgswalde (Jirikov) which lies today in the Czech Republic.
 [ They must have licensed the electric player system from Philipps,
 [ who quit production of the expensive DUCA reproducing system soon
 [ after 1912.  The Scholze brand name is now owned by Petrov.  More at
 [ http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-5357244/Manufacture-of-pianos-in-the.html 
 [ -- Robbie


(Message sent Fri 15 Jan 2010, 23:20:19 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  DUCA, Georgswalde, Piano, Reproducing, Scholze

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