What Bernt Damm describes (MMD 20.10.25) is a Marque Ampico,
a foot-operated Ampico, a standard model. They had simplified
expression systems, having intensities but not crescendos because
the operator was supposed to provide that by their pedalling.

That's a well-known thing. But less well known is how and why one
might appear fitted into a Beale piano.

I've been doing some research into "Ampico Limited" in London thanks
to material in the Broadwood archive. When Ampico decided to expand
its operations outside the USA they formed a company to fit players
into European piano brands. It was a business wholly-owned by George C.
Foster who was the business brains behind the American Piano Company.
His rationale was that Ampico works were fitted solely by Ampico
businesses.

In London there were two American staff overseeing this, with the work
done by the Sir Herbert Marshall piano company. Ernest Marshall was
the then-needed British director for a limited company and probably
the initiator of the venture because Marshalls had been UK agents for
Angelus for many years.

They renamed their showrooms in central London "Ampico House", for
a few years anyway until the Ampico business was ended in 1930.

One Ampico variant sold in the UK was a Marque Ampico. I bought one
from the local auction house. Nicely presented, with a brass-inlayed
'Marque Ampico' set into the fall and on an iron plate fitted to the
frame -- probably an Eavestaff piano. It was, rather bizarrely, fitted
with a small electric pump as well, despite lacking the crescendo
mechanism: a slow crescendo operated one intensity, a fast crescendo
a higher intensity.

That model was a weak competitor for the ubiquitous Pedal-Electric
Duo-Art that sold well in the UK. The PEDA was a full Duo-Art with
extras, while the pedal-electric Marque was certainly not a full
Ampico. It seems odd that Foster or his agents let this happen. When
Broadwood dropped the Angelus player they chose to fit the Amphion
pedal-operated Recordo -- which they were permitted to install
themselves.

Australian pianos fitted with the Ampico will follow a very similar
business model. Rick Alabaster has said this was done by Carnegie's at
their Howard piano works in Melbourne. Carnegie were the Angelus agent
for Australia, and Mr. Carnegie appears in the Broadwood archive where
a letter to Marshall describes him nicely: "he takes such a broadminded
view of most things, that I'm sure he would help rather than hinder."

Julian Dyer