I recently bought unseen a 1910 Weber Pianola Grand.  This was the
first year a grand Pianola was made by Aeolian, and a picture of it
can be found in the front of Alfred Dolge's monumental work "Pianos
And Their Makers", which was published in 1911.

When the movers delivered it, I was quite surprised that three big
guys, all professional movers, were struggling so hard with the piano.
I even tried helping out and realized that this piano was a lot heavier
than I figured.  It was not until that they finally set it up on its
side by a wall, that I began staring at the bottom of the piano, and
the mystery was solved.

Because this was the first piano of its kind, Aeolian took no chances
on it being strong enough.  It appears that they were worried that the
weight of the spoolbox would somehow affect the piano action, so they
cut away virtually the entire wood key bed, and replaced it with huge
rectangle of cast iron measuring 4 feet by 2 feet.  Much of the other
features are built so heavy, it is a little funny, and I will send in
photos of this piano so you can see for yourself.

Randolph Herr

 [ Watch for the photos at the MMD Pictures site.  -- Robbie