Question about Pierce Atlas (is there anything else?)

[pnotnr at aol.com]

99% of the time it seems that I can find the year of manufacture for a piano in the Pierce Atlas, but every so often I hit a dead end.? For example, I just saw a Hudson Console piano with a serial number 285578.? I looked up Hudson and no #'s are given, but it says that Hudson was made by Wellsmore and Jacob Doll.

Looking up Jacob Doll I find that the 1931 serial # was 181,000 and that after 1931, the company went into "receivers hands"? And looking at the previous years numbers, it is clear that they didn't? produce 104,000 pianos that year!? (the same dead end is reached with Wellsmore)

Anyway, I'm not particularly concerned that I cannot find out when THIS piano was built, but once in a while I have a customer with an obscure piano who really would like to know how old their piano is. I've seen enough pianos that I can usually give a guess, but I usually put it in a 10 to 15 year ballpark figure. ? If I can't find it in Pierce, I can't pin it down any closer then that.? So my question is whether there are any other sources out there with information that one cannot find in Pierce?? (How did he do it?)

Gordon Large, RPT
Hallowell, Maine
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