aluminum piano plate/ violin?

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 7/5/00 2:39:31 AM Central Daylight Time, 
tunenbww@clear.lakes.com writes:

<< Alcola must've been pretty industrious. They also produced a piano that
 used
 > aluminum for the harp. How much would that be worth? it probably weighed
 > 75-85 lbs. (spinet)
 > Pat in Denver >>

If you're asking what the plate would be worth, I guess that would depend on 
what the price of alumninumumnum is worth now. As a piano, they weren't worth 
much either. But I would venture to guess that given enough time, some shady 
antique dealer will get thousands for one of these instruments. Case in 
point. In St. Louis there is a small subdivision built right after WWII where 
the small houses were built entirely out of large aluminum panels, including 
the walls, the ceiling, the side of the house, etc. The houses weren't very 
well built, but they were "cute." Several years ago a developer wanted to 
tear down these houses to build new condos. Several historians objected, 
stating that these houses had enough significant historical value to be saved 
from the wrecking crew. They won. Now they are on the Missouri Historical 
registry, and will never be torn down. 

Willem