Chickering Info.

[Avery Todd]

List,

Does anyone know of someone who might be an "expert" on old Chickering grands?

I was called to go look at one the other day because of an insurance 
claim for a little flood damage. The water only got up high enough to 
damage the legs and pedal lyre a little. The water was only there app 
4-6 hrs. and the power was back on the next morning. It seems like 
everything else is OK, at least for the time being. However, I did 
caution her that there is no guarantee that no more problems would 
develop over the next several years.

Anyway, what I need is an approximate pre-flood value for the insurance.

Serial number is 17232 (1855 - 1860, according to Pierce).

It's app. 6-1/2' long (maybe a little longer) with a fairly ornate 
case, legs and pedal lyre.

It's straight strung in the bass (5 singles & 13 doubles), with only 
2 string unisons all the way through #88 and agraffes all the way to 
the top.

The dampers are very small (short).

The soundboard seems to be in good shape and it actually has a fairly 
decent sound for an instrument that old.

One possible problem with the value of it might be previous 
rebuilding work that's been done. Did Chickerings that old have the 
leather covered hammers? This one doesn't but they were probably 
replace when the instrument was refinished, restrung, etc.

The keytops have also been replaced with one-piece plastic which 
hangs over the edge too far.

Another local tech has looked at it and done some book research on it 
and gave her an app. value of $55,000 to $125,000 (a pretty wide 
range) :-) with it probably in the $90,000 range. I know very little 
about instruments of this age, but that seems like a pretty high 
value to me. Especially if any historical significance has been 
affected by the previous work done on it.

The same tech gave an estimate of about $22,000 to rebuild and 
refinish. Probably purposely on the high side to protect her in case 
other problems were found. It's in fairly nice shape except for the 
cracks in the legs and needing to refurbish the pedals because of the 
flood. It plays decently for an instrument that old.

Any comments or referrals to someone who might know?

Thanks.

Avery
Houston (Flood city, USA) :-)