By Living Room Realty, April 27, 2021
Back in this piano’s heyday, which was at the end of the 1800s and start of the 1900s, my clients piano would have been a source of home entertainment, as well as being a sign of status, and was often put in the best room in the house.
But in the 1920s, pianos were they were made for the mass market. They were not made to last, they were made to sell. Much like a house, a good piano needs to be built with a good foundation to last. After making several calls and posting free ads online for the piano pictured, my seller has found it impossible to find someone to take this instrument that we had made the focal point in our staging. I’ve heard the same cry from past clients that find themselves having to take their old well-loved possession to the dump.
What I have learned from talking to piano restoration enthusiasts is that a piano has thousands of moving parts, making restoration a very time-consuming, and specialist business. Just polishing a piano can take 70 hours. They become a money pit. I have also learned firsthand that it can be dangerous to dismantle a piano if you don’t know what you are doing because of the tension of the strings. Snapped fingers don’t feel so good.
I like that all of the old pianos that have brought happiness to people’s lives. And that maybe the piano was even ‘happy’ for its 100+ year life span.
