More player pianos were built in America between 1900 and 1930 than any other single type of piano. A conventional player piano is operated via a perforated paper roll inserted above the keyboard, and large pumping pedals below the keyboard. While pumping these pedals, vacuum is created which pulls air through the holes in the paper roll, causing the piano note to play. By 1910, all major manufacturers had at least one line of player pianos. By 1920, player pianos dominated the market place. In the years before the phonograph and radio, the player piano was the only means of musical entertainment for the public at large.

They were as common in the household then as our big screen television is today! Thousands of song titles were available for player piano rolls, and rolls were sold by the millions.

By the time the Great Depression hit, the radio and phonograph offered a much more affordable means of entertainment, and the player piano seemed to vanish overnight. In the last part of the 18 th century, John Jacob Astor started importing square grand pianos to America from Europe. By the turn of the 19 th century, a handful of makers are recorded as having made some of the first square grand pianos in America. For the next 100 years, the square grand piano would evolve into a larger, heavier, and more mechanically refined instrument. During the 19 th century, American piano makers built and sold more square grand pianos than grand pianos or upright pianos! Our vintage ephemera collections show these square grand pianos selling for as much as $800 in the mid 19th century – the cost of a small house! Sadly, however, they are all but forgotten today. By about 1880-1890, the American upright piano began to win favor as being more fashionable than the square grand piano.

Because they were smaller and took up less space, the upright piano caused the square grand piano to become obsolete by 1900. Prior to the Civil War, the square grand piano was the piano of choice by American manufacturers. There were a limited number of grand pianos built during the early 19 th century, but they were few and far between. By the late 1860s and early 1870s, conventional grand piano models began to appear in the sales catalogs of most manufacturers, but were still dominated by the selection of square grands available. These mid-19 th entury grand pianos were rarely less than six feet long, and were usually very massive and striking in appearance. Like square grands, they were ususally made of exotic rosewood or mahogany and were beautifully carved.

Piano serial numbers help to identify the age of your piano and the history surrounding its production. Run a free piano serial number search, here. Online Piano Valuations for 1000's of Piano Brands & Models. Piano Age Calculator with Serial Number Records from the Worlds Largest Online Piano Database. 2004-12-25 Forums and discussion of recording, guitar, bass, keyboard.

Driver Controlador De Rede Windows 7 64 Bits Acer on this page. As the 1880s and 1890s approached, the square grand piano began to fade in popularity, and manufacturers started promoting their lines of grand and upright pianos. By the last decade of the 19 th century, the square grand piano had all but disappeared in favor of the grand piano. Alfa Laval Cas Software Company.

In the early 20 th century the grand piano, like the upright piano, began to become a bit streamlined and simplified in design. By about 1910, smaller baby grand pianos started to become popular. Ab Chase Piano Serial Number. These early baby grand pianos were still a bit larger and more massive than the baby grand pianos produced in the 1920s, but they were a step in the evolution toward the tiny apartment size baby grand pianos of the 1930s and 1940s.

These baby grand pianos were offered in a wide variety of styles, often to compliment particular periods in furniture design, but the most popular style by far was the spade-leg classic design that most of us associate with the traditional baby grand piano of today. By the 1930s onward, tiny baby grand pianos, like the tiny spinet upright piano, continued to be popular in the modern American home as people moved into smaller houses and apartments. These tiny pianos were often referred to as “Apartment Size” baby grand pianos, sometimes measuring as little as 52 inches long! During the mid to late 19 th Century, most major manufacturers were building organs for home use. These were commonly referred to a “Parlor Organs”, “Reed Organs” and “Pump Organs”. These organs were operated via pumping of large foot pedals which would force air across a bank of reeds.