Painted Steinway A

[David ilvedson]

List,

I worked on an absolutely beautiful Steinway A, 1916 today.  
Beautiful because of the art work painted on the case.  Flowery 
borders with classical type pictures on the sides and lid.  The 
Steinway & Sons fallboard decal was also painted on.  The owner 
said a shop in New York told him the artist went by the name of 
Blackmoor or something like that and that Steinway made some 
number of these pianos.  This is white mahogany? which is pecan 
in color at this time.  What a beauty...I wish I could say the 
same for the sound...He had the action "restored" in the 1993 
because of vertegri.  Steinway hammer, shanks and flanges but 
the tone was gone, the hammers were huge...needs lots of filing 
and juicing...He said he had the original shanks and flanges and 
brought them out.  I installed and the original H, S & F and the 
tone was there...The hammers were in good condition!  I lubed 
with Protek and they freed up perfectly...we may put the old 
H,S & F's back on if the Protek works in the long term...

Anyhoo, if anyone has any information on these hand painted 
cases please post to the List or me privately



David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA
ilvey@a.crl.com