MetaChat - Piano Girl

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20 April 2008

Piano Girl I've bought a secondhand piano and it'll be delivered tomorrow. Yay!!! But I have a request... →[More:]

I want to look up the age of this piano. It's a Heintzman (the Toronto lover in me is delighted by the gold stamping that reads Heintzman, Toronto on the front) and the seller claims it was built in 1921. But I've been poking around on the net, and from the benchmark numbers on the Canadian Music Encyclopedia site, it seems to have been built during the 1910's.

Wikipedia says there are detailed serial numbers on the Heintzman Piano Company site, but I can't view the site. Probably because I'm still using Internet Explorer 6 (7 not being compatible with my operating system) and trying to view the site just makes my IE freeze up.

So... would anyone be willing to go on the Heintzman site, poke around, and tell me if he or she can find a specific year? The serial number is 46573.

I can look it up Tuesday at work on my not-ancient computer if no one wants to, but impatient minds want to know, and I'd also like to be able to tell the seller about the real age.

Thanks, big sloppy swan kisses....

post by: Orange Swan at: 18:37 | 8 comments

1913 - 44200
1914 - 46900
1915 - 48400

posted by birdie 20 April | 18:41

1913, if I'm reading it correctly.

posted by SassHat 20 April | 18:42

Thanks so much! That makes it just a year younger than my house.

posted by Orange Swan 20 April | 18:47

Well, let's see. Assuming they increment by one with each piano...

They made 2700 piano's in 1913, but only 1500 in 1914. No wonder we ended up in a world war. Slackers!

Now, let's assume that their norm was somewhere between the two. Say, 2100. And, again, assuming they increment with one for each. They started making pianos somewhere around 1892. I bet though, that they got a little faster as they went along, the slump in 1914 notwithstanding. So, just for kicks, I'm gonna guess this company started churning out pianos in....1886. Now, off to the website to see if I'm close, or crazy, or heck, BOTH.

Yay! Math fun!

posted by richat 20 April | 21:37

Well, for all my fun, it seems that I was only correct if I pretend that I was talking only of the GRAND pianos. Which, I was not. Cool read all the same! That queen, what a snooty lady!

Well, I do have a BA in History, not Math. Or pianos.

posted by richat 20 April | 21:41

My next task is to look up the history of my parents' piano. It's a square piano, made by R.S. Williams. My mother thinks it's "at least 150 years old", but it can't be because the Williams company wasn't in business in that time frame. My dad thinks it was made in the 1890s, which sounds nearer right.

I can't find the info on the net, so I'm going to drop by the Toronto Reference library sometime this week to look it up in their copy of the Pierce Piano Atlas. Also, I've come up with a Father's Day present idea for my dad. He was very interested to hear that there's a book about the history of the R.S. Williams company, called Under the Sign of the Big Fiddle: The R.S. Williams Family.

Oh, and richat, apparently Canadian pianos had an excellent reputation because they were made from the hardy Canadian wood which withstood drier and more extreme temperatures. They were often shipped to Australia and New Zealand. It's claimed that in the early 1900s Canada led the world in piano production rates.

posted by Orange Swan 20 April | 22:41

I am so jealous! I grew up with two pianos in the house and haven't had one for about 10 years now. I dream of having my mom's square grand (and a house to put it in).

posted by youngergirl44 21 April | 19:04

My parents' piano looks just like this one, youngergirl44. It is lovely, but my parents have made it clear that my younger sister is getting it when the time comes for them to downsize to a smaller place. I have zero quarrel with that. My sister was the only one of us to learn to play it well, and it's only fair that she should get it. Anyway it wouldn't fit in my house - my upright grand is almost too big. Moreover, I have my eye on my mother's china;-)

posted by Orange Swan 23 April | 12:39

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