A book of piano serial numbers is called a Piano Atlas and is used to look up the date of a piano's manufacture. This page might not be fully comprehensive but is still a useful reference point.
An exact date does not really make any material difference to an assessment of a hundred-year-old piano but to be within 2 to 5 years is accurate enough to give an informed report on a piano.
The serial numbers for the piano makers listed below are mostly from 1900 to 2000. There are occasional irregular intervals especially during the early 1940s - the WW2 period - when very few pianos were built in Europe.
Another thing to note is that these numbers do not necessarily reflect the actual number of pianos produced by a maker in a certain year or 5 year period. Often the numbers leap from a 5 digit number to a 6 or 7 digit number, occasionally, some revert back to a much smaller number! One can only suppose a certain factory changed its numbering system for some internal reason - perhaps to give the impression they were producing far more pianos than they actually were.
I have also noticed that at least 2 sets of numbers - for different makers - share exactly the same serial numbers. This may be a mistake by the compiler but is more likely that the factory produced both makes and the serial number given to each piano was duly listed in order - whatever the name on the front of the piano.
All this underlines the problems with trying to be too 'accurate' when dating elderly pianos. However, I trust these serial numbers prove to be useful in putting an approximate date on the piano you are researching.
AA book of piano serial numbers is called a Piano Atlas and is used to look up the date of a piano's manufacture. This page might not be fully comprehensive but is still a useful reference point.
An exact date does not really make any material difference to an assessment of a hundred-year-old piano but to be within 2 to 5 years is accurate enough to give an informed report on a piano.
The serial numbers for the piano makers listed below are mostly from 1900 to 2000. There are occasional irregular intervals especially during the early 1940s - the WW2 period - when very few pianos were built in Europe.
Another thing to note is that these numbers do not necessarily reflect the actual number of pianos produced by a maker in a certain year or 5 year period. Often the numbers leap from a 5 digit number to a 6 or 7 digit number, occasionally, some revert back to a much smaller number! One can only suppose a certain factory changed its numbering system for some internal reason - perhaps to give the impression they were producing far more pianos than they actually were.
I have also noticed that at least 2 sets of numbers - for different makers - share exactly the same serial numbers. This may be a mistake by the compiler but is more likely that the factory produced both makes and the serial number given to each piano was duly listed in order - whatever the name on the front of the piano.
All this underlines the problems with trying to be too 'accurate' when dating elderly pianos. However, I trust these serial numbers prove to be useful in putting an approximate date on the piano you are researching.
Autopiano Co.
The source for most of these numbers is of course the far more comprehensive Pierce's Piano Atlas. The format for each maker is in the form of a simple table.
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
V
W
Y
Z
No comments:
Post a Comment