Historical society piano

[Mark Graham]

I appreciate everyone's replies about the piano that needs vellum hinges
repaired. I'm not as horrified by the suggestion about using photographic
film as some, but I'll use vellum, which I've located.

The maker was John B. Philips, Barrington St, Halifax NS. It says "IRON"
on the front label, although the iron plate is all in back. The strings do
not cross over each other, and all strings, from lowest bass to highest
treble, are the same length, running the full length of the piano,
although in the treble most of that length is a non-speaking part past the
bridge. It's an upright. Keys have rounded fronts like an organ. All of
the upper damper assembly is completely missing. I am just going to repair
the action.

Anne and Steve, who have been very helpful -- Anne gave ideas to me last
summer on how to approximate replicas of the three hammers that were
missing -- from my admittedly uninformed viewpoint, this is not a case
where they should "rent a keyboard if they want to play Silent Night".
This is an almost no-budget, labor-of-love, historical society, where
townspeople have volunteered to preserve an old sandstone house and fill
it with a slice of life from the approximate time of the house's
construction. If any historical instrument specialists want to examine the
piano, they'd be delighted, but they wouldn't have the wherewithal to pay.
I don't see the harm in doing simple repairs to a piano that doesn't seem
to be unusual for its time, particularly when as you say, some museums
have rooms full of these things.  I'm trying to help the town and some of
its nicest citizens, and what little I do will be reversible.

If there's some real danger here that I'm missing, I'm willing to hear
about it.

Mark Graham
Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music
Berea, Ohio