In Digest 98.09.07 pswoolum@aol.com asked about a 1914 Laffargue piano
with Seaverns player.

For me this was a remarkable coincidence, because I live in England
and friends in Portland, Oregon had been given one and we've never
heard of the Laffargue here. Last week I visited them and they asked
me to look at it as it wasn't playing properly, so I got a good look
inside.

Theirs was a 1912 one with "Made for the Simon Piano Co" cast into
the frame (plate). The name Seaverns appears on the piano action, not
the player, which is a superior and early Standard action similar to
the Canadian Higel. It has buttons for (L to R) sustaining pedal,
bass half-blow rail, treble half-blow rail (for emphasizing the other
half of the keyboard) and fast forward. As usual, the sustain button
doesn't work when you're pedaling softly, which I feel is a wretched
piece of bad design from new. In 1912 I would have walked out of the
showroom with my arms folded on this account alone. (Well, actually,
no. Failing the money for a Steinway upright, I would have bought a
German Gotha Steck with Themodist action.)

The piano struck me as being suspiciously like the Marshall & Wendell
mid-range model made by the American Piano Co. It had an excellent
tone, the player had been expertly restored to original standards
about 20 years previously and once I had spent about ten minutes
putting a little graphite on the motor valve slides and reoiling the
spoolbox bearings, it went like billyo. (On singalongs which is what
Mrs. was really interested in, the sustain worked fine.)

I hope this helps. The Laffargue is the top of the range of a type of
player better suited to robust song and dance than classical.

Dan Wilson, London