new to me?

[John Musselwhite]

At 08:24 PM 14/11/02 -0500, Phil wrote:

>by the way:
>
>The piano has not been re-whatevered in any way..it belongs to the original
>owner.
>
>I was hoping for a explaination as to why this particular color for this
>particular model for this particular year...?

If I recall Joe Bisceglie's explanation correctly, in 1956 (and perhaps 
part of 1957) Steinway built a number of pianos to be "100th anniversary" 
models.  These pianos had a "wrinkled" sort-of bronze/tan finish on the 
plate with smooth dampers coloured to match and the stringing braid, plate 
and belly felts were brown. I seem to recall that this was meant to pay 
homage to the first instruments that Henry Steinway built.

The original D at the Jubilee Auditorium here in Calgary is an example of 
these pianos that is still in use on the concert stage, though not nearly 
with the intensity of the first half of its life. After nearly 50 years of 
concert service it's still in almost-original condition and only the 
hammers/shanks and key bushings have been changed.  I do not know if they 
took any extra care in the construction of these particular models or not, 
but most of the other examples I've seen of this vintage have been very 
nice pianos in general, though they look rather odd when you lift the 
lid.  Occasionally you see these "re-whatevered" with plates sprayed gold 
right over the old finish, making it seem like there might have been 
something in the paint that "ruined" the smooth finish that people expect 
to find in a Steinway. I prefer them restored to their original state 
though, as they were somewhat "special" (some might say bizarre) compared 
to any other vintage.

>Maybe there's no explaination?

I hope that one helped.

                 John