Weber piano

[Michael Magness]

On Dec 3, 2007 1:11 PM, Berley Antoine Firmin II <firmin1 at bellsouth.net>
wrote:

>  Hi all,
> I have a 1929 Weber Duo Art reproducing piano. The fallboard has the Weber
> decal, but underneath is Lyon and Healy. I have never seen this before. Is
> Lyon and Healy a store or a manufacturer at that time?
>
> thanks,
> Berley A. Firmin II
> LaCombe, Louisiana
>

Hi Berley,

If you'd asked me a few years ago I would have said they only manufactured
harps. That they sold pianos they had manufactured for them with their name
on them. I have since seen, researched and restrung for a customer a George
Lyon upright, the nameplate inside the piano said Lyon and Healy with George
Lyon underneath.
It was an early type upright from about 1885 with straight strung bass(not
overstrung), 2 string unisons, only whole wire strung(no halfsizes) 85 note,
no bridle straps, rocker capstans. If you check the Pierce Atlas you'll find
them listed through 1890.
I believe after that they chose to have their pianos built and concentrate
on retailing.
Unlike the "stencil" pianos of recent american manufacturers such as Aeolian
where the name was "stenciled" on the outside but without a nameboard you
couldn't tell them apart, these were fully manufactured as Lyon & Healy
pianos. They were completely Lyon & Healy with the name cast into the plate,
a decal on the soundboard in the grands and a nameboard decal as well. I
have never ascertained if the pianos were built to a differing specification
than those of the manufacturer's pianos but it is possible.
I had understood that Packard, Schulz and Weber had all built pianos for
them at different times. According to Pierce, "Packard Schultz" was the
sole piano maker however there is no Packard Schultz listed in Pierce
leading me to believe an error in the form of an omitted comma was
made. Both Packard and M.Schulz were in business in Chicago Packard from
1895 through 1957 and M.Schulz 1895 through 1933. Weber 1860 through 1978.

I would guess that what you have is a Weber sold by Lyon&Healy. It wasn't
uncommon for stores to put their own decal on merchandise similar to the
"dealer" logos placed on the back of new cars today as late as the '50's and
early '60's. We had a couple of stores locally that used to put the name of
the store in gold lettering on the fallboard, usually on the right side near
the cheekblock.

The other possibility is it was a mistake, they had just finished a "run" of
Lyon & Healy's and were doing a run of their own pianos and someone put the
wrong decal on, then just covered it with the right one.
If nothing else it's a conversation piece if you leave it.

Mike

-- 
The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at ifixpianos.com
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