The pedal Steinway discussion and articles by Bruce Grimes and
Carl Dodrill brought to mind something unusual about a piano of mine.
It is upright Steinway Duo-Art serial number 148881, a number listed
to have shipped in 1911, two years before the Duo-Art was marketed in
1913.  Perhaps it was a converted pedal Themodist, or just a long lag
from piano delivery to Duo-Art installation.  Nevertheless, it's the
lowest piano serial number I've seen on a Duo-Art.

The piano is the typical upright type, older, with Tempanomic knob,
cross valve seats and six-bellows steamboat pump.  Also, the motor
pneumatics are larger than usually found.  I discovered this while
concurrently rebuilding the motor of a Weber grand; I was cutting the
cloth to the size of the Weber, only to find they wouldn't fit the
Steinway pneumatics!

Another anomaly is a Steinway Duo-Art grand, serial number 225707 of
1924, with the original stamp of "LR" where "XR", "OR", or "AR" would
appear.  It has the look and length of a typical "OR".  My tuner says
this isn't surprising, something about the Steinway Model L replacing
the Model O, but I've never heard of a model "LR" Duo-Art.

Craig Roothoff
Escondido, Calif.