I am having the hardest time finding out information on this piano doing a google search..

Is this piano a one of a kind?
Well to be as old as this appears to me it seems but I am probably wrong.

Worlds Columbian Expodition
In Commemoration Of The
Four Hundredth Anniversary
Of The Landing Of Columbus
MDCCXCII MDCCCXCIII
To The Bush & Gerts Co.


More photos can be seen here My Jornal

If anyone here has any thoughts, opinions, or facts to share about this Piano, I would love to know...

Here are a couple of links I believe will help you. It appears to me (as a small time antique dealer) that your piano was manufactured by a company that at least exhibited at the Columbian Exposition and probably won some sort of award, at least honorable mention and is displaying at logo to commemorate the event and profit by a little Columbian Exposition hype. (I own a set of dominoes that I think was actually sold as a souvenir of the Expostion.)

http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200506/2005.06.29.07.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/864.html

Bush & Gerts made pianos near Chicago from 1884 to 1942. They probably made this special one for the exposition. If you tell me the serial number, I can tell you when it was made (look here):
http://www.pianoatlas.com/serial.html

It's probably 1893, as indicated in Roman numerals in the logo (and the date of the exposition). Serial numbers that year ran from 10,000 to 11,999.

From the pictures, it looks to be in pretty bad shape, as would be expected for any instrument 103 years old...

--Cy--

Good posts so far,

The Bush & Gerts company was respected when they made pianos, but in today's marketplace it isn't profitable to perform full rebuilds on these beasts, so I can't tell you I haveever played one in great condition.

Yours does not look in great shape either and has little to no value. Sorry for the bad news.

Wow, 1893, this is history.
I am trying to find the serial number. I will have to get my husband to help as it is very hard for me to push it out from the wall......


Thank you so much ya'll for these links.
There is not a lot on the web that I have been able to find enough information for me to stop researching yet... Now I am starting to think a little to much maybe about the history and where this piano has come from before my priveledge of acquiring it in my home.
History means a lot to me, and I think that to know or even dig a little information around will help keep the piano with a story for it to remain alive...
I realize the value isnt much for a unrefinished antique such as this instrument, though the craftsmanship has really held up very well all these years.
Its hard to believe that I am still playing it and it has a decent sound of a older piano much expected to what one would hear from such..
There must be tons of work that goes into building them so I can not imagine the work to refinish one of these old things but I would be willing to get my hands dirty with a little coaching and spending some money for help from a local piano shop to get the job done.....
It is fascinating to view documents and hear about history but to own a piece of history that would be very special...
So here are a few of my thoughts and wonders...
How many and who may have played this piano?

This piano may have been in a well to do families home?

This piano may have been played by a well known musician in that time perhaps for a event that was imporntant like the Columbian Expodition?

Who was Bush & Gerts? Where where they from? How many pianos did they make? Why did they stop making pianos? Who played these pianos?

Sorry if I ask to many questions, this is kind of like my brainstorm, that will help me to research more, so I will share my thinking for all maybe to help another as well as myself...

I found another link with information about Chicagos Landmarks.. The Bush Temple of Music wich was built to show the pianos as well as be the main place for Bush & Gerts Company.

I found the serial number and it is 61141...


I have loaded more pictures with more details like some close ups of the board..
If anyone would like to have look you can find them
Discovering the guts inside a Bush & Gerts Upright..

Its dirty in there...
Working on the dust and wondering what I else I can use to get in there....AAAAAchooooooieeeeee! Man I bet there is 100 years of dust mites inside.

It appears to have been manufactured in 1919 (looks like some big typos in the Atlas for those years! p.67 of 11th Ed.).

--Cy--

For info on the Columbian Exposition, see
http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html
Also, the excellent book, "The Devil In The White City" is a great read. It weaves two stories together, that of the exposition, and that of a serial murderer who lived in Chicago at the time of the fair.

Decals displaying awards such as this was a very common sales gimmick among American piano manufacturers. Lots of makers would make a collage of various expos and world's fairs, and occasionally they even attended one or two of them

It is a meaningless decoration. Even Kimball, Baldwin, Wurlitzer, etc. had them in the pianos they were building right up into the 1990s. Your piano has no monetary value, little musical value, and it would cost you ten times what it would be worth to restore it. It didn't get the decal because anyone famous played it, or because it was otherwise special. It's just another old piano.

I think Men, Women, and Pianos is the book that has the story of the Columbian Exposition and the hanky-panky concerning displaying pianos there. In short, manufacturers from the East did not exhibit there, because they were pretty sure that the judges were there to promote pianos made in Chicago.

Hey, thank you all so much for your help, very much appreciated. Well, I am sure to know some history now. I must have not learned about the epodition in school or I wasn't paying attention.. I will have to look for those books at the library. Sounds like some interesting reading....

Wow, 1919 is before my time,,, thats old!

I saw the same logo on a Kingsbury (Cable Co., Chicago) today, a completely different company.

Hello,

I came across your photos on Buzznet and your posts on this forum while looking around for information on Bush & Gerts pianos. I own one also, but it's missing several of the pedal parts and links, both above and below the keyboard. Do you still have your piano? If so, perhaps I could persuade you to take a few photos of parts of it so I can start to make the missing parts?

Regards,

Charlie Koster
San Gabriel, CA