Subject: Piano Case Styles

Terry Smythe mentioned a couple of days ago that he was looking for
various designs of piano cases, since there is not very much avail-
able on the subject. Back in 1926 the Chickering Company produced a
small brochure (around 30 pages) that included photographs of their
pianos in homes around the country. The brochure also includes the 
sizes available and the weight of each piano and also boxed weight
and cubic footage. The latter pages include period designs with the
AMPICO included. I have only photocopies of the original pages and
they certainly do not give justice to the  original instruments, but
at least I know that something like that does exist, and there are
probably are other copies floating around out there. All you have to 
do is look for them!

A sad story to pass on which has a definite lesson for everyone!

Over ten years ago, long established piano store in Downtown Buffalo
decided to close its main store and do business only in the burbs.
Knowing that they had been a Steinway dealer I inquired whether they
had any rolls on the various floors upstairs. No one knew anything
about old piano rolls or player piano parts at all. About two months
ago I was talking to a man who went into the same store probably on
the last day they were open. He did get permission to look around
and see what was to be seen. He looked on all the floors and didn't
see much worth talking about. He then went into the basement and
was surprised to see all sorts of player parts and everything else
immaginable. He related to me that in one seperate room there were
floor to ceiling wooden crates stacked on their sides. In each of 
the crates were brand new piano rolls. Probably Duo-Arts! Unfor-
tunately he wasn't into player pianos at that time, and so he left
them. Soon after that the building was demolished with all the
rolls and everything else that was in the basement! To this day
the lot is empty. I often wonder if some Duo-Art rolls could be dug
up out of the rubble. If you know of any long established music
stores in your area, Go and visit them!! Ask to look around in their
basements, and if you see anything, grab it if you can. You may
never get another chance.

				Mike Walter¶
				bf105@freenet.buffalo.edu