1824 Erard grand

[S. Brady]

David,
	I've worked on a few of these London Erards. One thing I can tell
you is that the 1824 is wrong; the London pianos had a different serial#
series than the Paris ones. The piano is probably closer to mid-century,
perhaps 1850 or 1860.
	The piano probably doesn't have as much historic value as you
might think, as they seem to be fairly plentiful. I've seen them go for as
much as $5,000 in Seattle, but you can't count on getting that much.
Someone just donated a very nice one to the UW after trying for months to
sell it on consignment.

Steve


On Fri, 10 Jan 1997, Vanderhoofven wrote:

> Dear friends on Pianotech,
>
> I hope I can get some help here!  (I know I can, actually, since you have
> helped me before.)
>
> Some friends of mine have an 1824 Erard Grand #5933 (made in London) in
> their shop.  I am writing to find out more information about this piano to
> help my friends.  This piano has very fancy scrollwork on the music desk and
> inlays in the rosewood veneer.  The main problem is that the pinblock is
> splitting out severely, and needs to be replaced.  The tuning pins are not
> like any that I have seen before, as they are rectangular.
> The piano is not overstrung, but straight strung.  All of the strings are
> individually tied with very long tails.  The piano has a metal hitch pin
> plate with long iron bars screwed to the frame for stability.  The case has
> straight sides, like a tapered box (Not like a modern bent rim) with
> beautiful maple for the rim and beautiful rosewood veneer.
>
> The soundboard has grain running front to back in a straight line with a few
> small cracks in the board.  The bridges look good with a few minor cracks in
> the treble bridge.
>
> The keyboard has perfect ivories, and the action is very unique.  The key
> has a slot cut into the back of the key to hold the capstan, and the capstan
> is pinned (with a center pin) to the key.  There is a brass turnbuckle to
> adjust the hammer blow distance.  The dampers have a spring under them to
> push them up against the strings.  (The dampers are spring loaded and come
> up from underneath the strings.  The action is very clean, and the wood is
> preserved very well - nice and white.
>
> This piano looks very similar in construction to the picture of the 1866
> Erard grand on page 48 of the book by David Crombie called "Piano",
> copyright 1995.
> http://www.mfi.com/mf-books/piano.html  is the URL about this book.
>
> Questions:
> 1.  Where is it possible to find tuning pins with a rectangular head, and/or
> a tuning lever tip  to fit such rectangular tuning pins.  If there is not a
> source for these tuning pins, would it damage the historicity of the
> instrument to go with modern tuning pins?  (I would prefer not to make any
> changes to the original design if possible.)  Would it be better to clean
> the original rectangular head tuning pins and blue them and then reuse them?
>
> 2.  How does one determine the metal composition of the strings?  The bass
> strings are either steel or iron wrapped, and I don't know what type of
> metal is in the core wire or in the treble wire (possibly iron ? or soft
> steel?).  Is there a source for such music wire?  What would happen if the
> piano was strung with modern steel wire?
>
> 3.  Has anyone else worked on a similar piano and have experience with the
> way this piano action works?
>
> 4.  Does this piano have any special historic value?  And what would be an
> approximate value on this piano?
>
> Thank you all very much!
>
> David
>
> David A. Vanderhoofven
> Joplin, Missouri, USA
> Associate Member, Piano Technicians Guild
> e-mail:  dkvander@clandjop.com
> web page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/
> #pianotech page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html
>
>

Steve Brady, RPT
University of Washington
Seattle, WA