At 09:38 AM 2/24/97 -0500, you wrote: >out). On the inside of the bottom "A" key, is the signature of H. Moss, >and the date Jan 23/92. > >Was it common practice for one of the builders to sign his work? > > >PS -- this is my first rebuilding job and I'm loving every minute of it! Bernie, Congrats on tackling your first! Glad you like it. Lots of treasure can be found under those keys. Yes, signatures were and to some extent, still very common. I've found all kinds of names on keys, case parts, the back of plates, action rails, and so on. I suspect that in most cases it's a q.c. person's dept. sign-off. I once did a square(yes, we're all young and stupid at one point) where the decal had been removed and there was NOTHING besides a serial # ANYwhere else on the piano. Well... turns out that another common practice before the turn of the century was to use expensive letterhead-type stationary, cards, inter-office stuff, etc., for shimms and punchings because of quality or thickness. On this particular square, I pieced together enough punchings to determine the manufacturer. Tedious, but worth it. It taught me to look for the evidence in the least likely places. Guy Nichols, RPT, chapter 799 nicho@lascruces.com
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