Dave Krall posted in yesterday's 181212 MMD a photo of an upright player
piano with a "Mason & Hamlin" transfer on the fallboard, evidently
auctioned sometime in 2014 by Skinner Auction House.  Here is the link
Dave placed in his posting showing a photograph of the piano:

http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/18/12/12/181212_084102_M&H%20player%20piano1.jpg
 

My assessment is that I do not believe this to be a Mason and Hamlin
piano at all, but rather nothing more than an impressive decal placed
on the fallboard of a lesser-respected piano during the refinishing.
I've seen this unscrupulous, intentionally misleading offense more
times than I can count, usually performed on cheap pianos intended for
flipping.

After a bit of research, I have concluded that this piano is a Windsor,
with a Pratt-Read player action.  An identical piano was mentioned here
for sale, with several photographs, by Sam Harris in the February 24th,
2017, edition of the MMD, the link to which provided below:

  https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201702/2017.02.24.09.html 

This is a perfect example of "buyer beware."  It proves that it's
always a good lesson to educate yourself fully about what you're
looking at before making expensive mistakes, especially at an auction.

John Rutoskey
Baltimore, Maryland