[pianotech] Amazing Victorian uprights....was alternate...

[John Delacour]

At 10:23 -0400 30/10/2010, Dale Erwin wrote:

>  Having been in my shop on many occasions you know I love old 
>uprights in a Victorian case, a  manufacturing time capsule  that 
>will never be equaled. Virgin timbers, fierce competition and highly 
>skilled American /immigrant craftsman from across Europe combined to 
>make stellar instruments.  The entertainment center of the day.  A 
>high symbol of class and musical cultural. When singing was 
>considered way cool and done with abandon and great fun  aaaand 
>playing the piano even more cool. A real status symbol
>     I have this dream/illusion that someday folks around the country 
>will realize how and gorgeous amazing these upright pianos are, 
>These treasures built from the 1890 to about 1910 will never be 
>built again....aaaand that many are worth restoring and will spend 
>lots of money to restore and PLAY them.
>  Hey , it's a dream, but it could happen and occasionally one of 
>those  folks spend real money to do just that. We have one now.

Roll on that day!  In England we can go back a bit further than 1890 
and at the moment I have in slow progress the restoration of three 
Kirkman verticals from the 1880s, two of them vertical strung and two 
of them overdamped.  The first reason I love them is that they have 
such a wonderful voice, but they are also beautifully made and look 
terrific.  The value of the work I shall put into these little gems 
is as much or more than I might put into the full restoration of a 
grand and I knew from the outset that it was purely a labour of love, 
but when they are done they will be rare if not even unique and ready 
to give someone a lot of pleasure.  Where those eventual purchasers 
are and whether they turn up with the proper money before I die 
doesn't much matter to me.

More and more, people are conditioned to hearing instruments and 
voices that have no real soul.  It goes not only for pianos but for 
other instruments and their players, and for the human voice.  Today 
I listened to the end a recital of Schubert songs on the radio with 
the sole aim of being able to add the singer's name to a long list of 
things never to listen to again, and few modern performers escape 
that list.

JD