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[Albertien de Pater]

At 13:07 3-11-00 -0700, you wrote:
>   My two sons restore pianos at the Chinook Keyboard  Museum in Calgary
>under the  guidance of Bill Garlick. They are currently rebuilding  a
>Pleyel Duo Clave. For those who aren't familiar  with this instrument, it
>is a rectangular shaped grand with a keyboard and  pedals at each end. One
>massive plate, two complete sets of strings.  The reason Bill chose to
>rebuild as apposed to restore, was the  piano suffered extreme water damage
>and was literally in pieces. Missing  most of the veneer,  delaminated
>blocks  etc.   Bob                
>& Sons  Piano Service
>Calgary, Alberta
>Canada 


Hello Canada!

Pleased to read your post. I worked on a 'vis-à-vis' Pleyel several years
ago. It was built in 1898, and now it is exposed in a museum in Stuttgart,
Germany. The name of this museum is "Württembergisches Landesmuseum
Stuttgart", and it has a very interresting collection, if you are ever in
Europe. 
The length of this instrument was 2.46 m (sorry, I never understand inches
and feet), but I know there is or was a bigger one in Belgium, in Brussels
or in Antwerpen. How long is this Calgerian instrument? "Ours" was to
compare with two 1.50 m grands. It was a pleasure to work on it, and I am
very pleased it is used regularly for concerts in the museum. 

> It is to our knowledge one of maybe 6 known to exist. Vintage is 1913.

I remember there also was one in Paris or Versailles, that makes 4. Do you
know the whereabouts of the others? 
If you like I can send you a postcard I bought in Stuttgart. In that case,
please send me your post address. 

Greetings from Amsterdam,
Albertien de Pater.
(Yes yes yes, one of the 3 'femails' of the dutch list). (Happily lurking
for 2 1/2 years now).