<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> Just so you know it... I  know a person who purchased a 1840's Graf for US 50,000 Dollars just a couple years ago. It had been refurbished, not so much rebuilt. Origional finish I believe, most of the action wear and tear parts had been renewed... new strings and pins (of origional sort). But very much of the thing was pretty much origional. Seems to be a fairly big center for this kind of thing in Amsterdam. There are at least a few builders there, and a fairly reasonbly sized miljeu of players. You may just have stumbled across a silver egg there Rob. Cheers RicB Rob Goodale wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> An amazing find here, I almost can't believe this one... Yesterday I received a phone call from a lady who says she has a friend who is trying to find a home for her piano.  I ask what it is and her only  answer is "I don't know, just an old piano". She gives me the first name of her friend and the number.  Naturally the first thing that comes to mind is an old PSO upright that should be burned.  So what the heck, I call. She says that she is moving this weekend and she needs to get this piano out immediately.  Again I ask what it is.  "I don't know, just a big grand" she says.  (Okay getting somewhere, it least it isn't an old upright).  Then she says it's 100 years old and it doesn't play.  (Here we go again).  Almost reluctantly I agree to swing by and take a look.  The lady lives in one of the worst neighborhoods in Las Vegas, the type of which you don't dare walk around at night without packing a Smith & Wesson. I knock on the door and it's this little old lady.  She explains that she is moving to Texas and didn't know what to do with the piano.  She doesn't want any money for it, just wants to get it out of the house immediately, period.  I walk in and almost fall over... What is it?  How about an original Broadwood!!!!!!!  I'm talking historic!  It could possibly even qualify as a forte-piano.  Read on... The case features hand carved legs and fancy lyre, numerous carved curves and edges, some accent carved lace on the music rack, all original and intact.  Even the original strings.  The fallboard reads the following elaborately carved into an ivory plaque, (much nicer than this font, just so you get the idea):  <center>PATENT</center> <center>John BRoadwood & Sons</center> <center>Makers To His Majesty & Princess</center> <center>Great Pileney Street, Golden Square</center> <center>London</center>   Now for the details:Serial number reads #643.  This places it at about 1843.  The Pierce book describes it as a "Cottage Grand" The piano measures 6 feet and 6-1/2 inches long. It is 4 feet 1/4 inch across the front rim. It has 6 -1/2 octaves measuring 3 feet and 7-1/2 inches wide. The original ivory is in remarkable shape, all intact but significant wear. The tuning pins are the original oval hammered and tapered type, very primitive looking.  The exposed pin block is split badly. The plate (if you can call it that), is light weight and made up of five independent sections all held together with screws.  It does not make direct contact the pin block. The beams on the bottom are very light weight.  They look like about 3"X3". Rather than agraffs or a capo the strings pass through a continuous brass rail that extends all the way across the pin block. There are two strings per note including the bass strings.  The bass strings may be steel wound, I need to look closer at this. The rim is made up of four sections.  The tail piece is curved part way and the other sections are rounded with a miter joint concealed below the veneer to make it appear as if it were one piece. The legs are round and nicely hand carved.  They are attached via a threaded wood dowel through the bottom. The lyre is made to really look like a lyre.  There are two pedals, both wood. The bridges are very delicate and narrow.  There is a separate bass bridge which meets up to the treble bridge at a nearly right angle. The sound board grain goes cross-wise.  There are about a dozen cracks but still all glued, no loose ribs that I noticed The action is amazing.  I have not had the opportunity to pull it out yet.  Let-off is adjusted by big oval pins which look similar to the tuning pins.  The hammers are very tiny and delicate as are the dampers.  I will know much more when I pull it out. The biggest concern structurally that I can see is that the spine side, (lid hinge side), is slightly bent outward.  I would guess that this was caused by tension and probably occurred over 100 years ago.  The veneer is in remarkable shape considering it's age but will still require substantial repair.  Most of the damage is on the tail which appears as if it might have been against a radiator sometime in it's life. So the little old lady just wants it out and she wants it out now!  She isn't looking for money.  Alan Meyer and I rushed over at about 7:30 AM this morning, packed it up, and headed to the opposite end of town to my garage where it sits now.  To ward off any guilt I gave the lady a little money toward her moving expenses.  She was delighted and gave me a big hug as if I were her grandson, she couldn't have been happier. SO....  There are the basics, I hope to have some more details soon.  My question right now is can anyone provide some general insight about this piano's value?  I presume this instrument has more museum value than musical value and would look nice behind velvet ropes.  I'm still trying to believe this actually happened all in about 18 hours from the initial phone call and didn't cost me anything except my little "thank you" money I gave her on my way out the door.  Comments, info anyone please... Rob Goodale, RPTLas Vegas, NV                 </blockquote> -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>   </body> </html>