Identify Mystery Piano
By Dave Fowler
Dear Group,
I've met with a rather vexing question lately and was wondering if any one of you experts out there can help me with the answer. I spoke to a very elderly woman recently who purports to have a reproducing piano. She said that her mother purchased it for her in 1927 in NYC when she was a child of ten. Lo, these many years later she still has the piano, which she says is a Keller and Sons, serial no 20071. Having looked in my Pierce I find that Keller and Sons was bought out by Wilfred Piano in 1916, making the serial number and manufacture date of her piano impossible. So, looking up the serial number for Wilfred Piano I find that the serial number may correspond to the information she offered up. (Here comes the tricky part).
Some twenty or so years ago her daughter was taking piano lessons on said piano and it was recommended to here that she have removed the drawer of the piano. She did so, as well as the electric motor that the mover said he may have some use for. She believes the balance of the mechanism is still housed within the piano. And her location is distant enough from me that I'd like to go looking at this piano armed with some knowledge of it. She does not know what kind of reproducing mechanism is in the piano but only remembers that the rolls were all in black boxes.
(A footnote: she had the piano refinished about ten years ago and now has no reference to the manufacturer or mechanism on the fallboard, but says she can clearly make out "KL" burned prominently into the wood...she said it is found somewhere under the lid)
So, my question to you all is: 1) Does anyone know what kind of reproducing action might be in this piano (bearing in mind that it had a drawer, an electric motor, and used rolls in exclusively black boxes)?; 2) Can anyone tell me anything about either Keeler and Sons or Wilfred Piano (other than what's found in Pierce and Presto's Buyer's Guide)?; and 3) What are the odds that I'll actually find the obscure drawer and various other components that may be missing in order to restore her piano?
Any and all information (including well-reasoned conjecture) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Dave Fowler (kiigoretrt@aol.com)
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(Message sent Wed 25 Sep 1996, 02:28:16 GMT, from time zone GMT-0400.) |
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