1824 Erard grand

[Vanderhoofven]

Dear friends on Pianotech,

I hope I can get some help here!  (I know I can, actually, since you have
helped me before.)

Some friends of mine have an 1824 Erard Grand #5933 (made in London) in
their shop.  I am writing to find out more information about this piano to
help my friends.  This piano has very fancy scrollwork on the music desk and
inlays in the rosewood veneer.  The main problem is that the pinblock is
splitting out severely, and needs to be replaced.  The tuning pins are not
like any that I have seen before, as they are rectangular.
The piano is not overstrung, but straight strung.  All of the strings are
individually tied with very long tails.  The piano has a metal hitch pin
plate with long iron bars screwed to the frame for stability.  The case has
straight sides, like a tapered box (Not like a modern bent rim) with
beautiful maple for the rim and beautiful rosewood veneer.

The soundboard has grain running front to back in a straight line with a few
small cracks in the board.  The bridges look good with a few minor cracks in
the treble bridge.

The keyboard has perfect ivories, and the action is very unique.  The key
has a slot cut into the back of the key to hold the capstan, and the capstan
is pinned (with a center pin) to the key.  There is a brass turnbuckle to
adjust the hammer blow distance.  The dampers have a spring under them to
push them up against the strings.  (The dampers are spring loaded and come
up from underneath the strings.  The action is very clean, and the wood is
preserved very well - nice and white.

This piano looks very similar in construction to the picture of the 1866
Erard grand on page 48 of the book by David Crombie called "Piano",
copyright 1995.
http://www.mfi.com/mf-books/piano.html  is the URL about this book.

Questions:
1.  Where is it possible to find tuning pins with a rectangular head, and/or
a tuning lever tip  to fit such rectangular tuning pins.  If there is not a
source for these tuning pins, would it damage the historicity of the
instrument to go with modern tuning pins?  (I would prefer not to make any
changes to the original design if possible.)  Would it be better to clean
the original rectangular head tuning pins and blue them and then reuse them?

2.  How does one determine the metal composition of the strings?  The bass
strings are either steel or iron wrapped, and I don't know what type of
metal is in the core wire or in the treble wire (possibly iron ? or soft
steel?).  Is there a source for such music wire?  What would happen if the
piano was strung with modern steel wire?

3.  Has anyone else worked on a similar piano and have experience with the
way this piano action works?

4.  Does this piano have any special historic value?  And what would be an
approximate value on this piano?

Thank you all very much!

David

David A. Vanderhoofven
Joplin, Missouri, USA
Associate Member, Piano Technicians Guild
e-mail:  dkvander@clandjop.com
web page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/
#pianotech page:  http://www.clandjop.com/~dkvander/ircpiano.html