Cy asked: "A customer has an A. H. Gale square from about 1855 in an estate. The serial number may be 4000. I haven't seen it, but it's the oldest piano I've run across. Any special value to it? President McKinley had one." --Cy, Unless you have personally seen a piano, don't attempt to value/evaluate it, please. Just because President McKinley had one, is of no interest or cause for evaluation. A specific date is always needed. It was, obviously, a small company and did not survive for very long. With that info, I'd surmise that their instruments were not noteworthy. Evaluation is hinged to a provable provenance (sp?)/historical significance. Without that, the piano will fall victim to the actual record of sale criteria. The only site of sales/purchases for these instruments is by Auction, as there is no way of tracking private sales and music stores don't handle them...at all! IF the instrument, in question, is one of a famous builder, such as Steinway, Chickering, Mason & Hamlin, etc., it will command a higher value. Anything else is basically worth a minimum value of $500.00 up to $1,500.00. That's it! The famous ones are usually worth about $1,000.00 more than the others. This "rule" has been constant, in my area, for over 15 years and has not changed. I believe that this "rule" or "formula" should hold true anywhere in the U.S.of A.<G> Of course, local differences of economy will have an effect on this. (you do the math<G>) Keep in mind, just because it is old, does not make it valuable.<G> Regards, JOE Joe Garrett, R.P.T. (Oregon) Captain, Tool Police Squares R I -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100829/50ef4ddd/attachment.htm>
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