Looked at a 1906 Steinway B that had an "art case" consisiting of many intricate brass castings and filigree all around the edge and centered on the sides, all over the double legs, a lyre shaped like an actual lyre, etc. Supposedly only 5 were made. (?) Someone did a quite decent job of shimming the few short cracks in the board, which still had a bit of crown and good sustain. Beautiful job of plate refinishing, restringing, & repinning (4/0), but original pinblock. Also new dampers and hammers, but original shanks & flanges. Didn't seem to need key rebushing and backchecks and wippens were OK. Knuckles a bit flat and needed better regulation, but sounded great! Original ivories still beautiful. One curious side note -- from A3 on up, all the tuning pin holes are countersunk, or beveled on top, but not all the ones below it, including the bass. What's with that?? Maybe somebody was gonna put plate bushings but gave up after countersinking 2/3 of the holes (for easier insertion of the bushings)?? What I'm wondering is how much does the art case add to the value of the piano? I know there was a discussion on this a while back, but trying to come up with the correct "thread to search for" in the archives is usually unfruitful for me. What format is used for that? art case + historic + value + antique or something like that? Does it have to be the exact subject that was in the "Subject" line of the original post(s)? Sometimes a discussion of different kinds of epoxies can be under a thread of "bridge repairs" or similar. I'm not sure how useful the archives are without a detailed index, or is there one I'm unaware of? Thanks for any info. Sincerely, David Nereson, RPT, Denver.
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