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The "piano man" comes on Tuesday to give the piano a look over to determine what may need to be done. Depending on his answer, it may be moved to his shop, or if too much needs to be done and isn't affordable at the moment, it will be moved to my sister's house, where it will at least be tuned (to whatever extent is currently possible). I think on the outside, at least, it's in terrific shape for something so old and that has been so well used over the years ... including the original piano bench! I just love the legs on the piano and bench; they are so cool!

Good luck with it, perhaps it won't need to much work, or as has been suggested to me to do it in stages. I like the ice cream cone legs and to my taste the Chickerings of this era were some of the best looking pianos made.

PDT: I've followed this thread closely, as I own a Quarter Grand myself (a little newer than yours, we estimate mine was built sometime in the mid-twenties), acquired about a year ago in odd circumstances and I play mine every single day. I'm delighted you've decided to keep the piano in your family; a decision I'm sure will not be regretted. You're right; that bench is something, very pretty! I wish you and your sister the best with your piano, and I'll be anxiously waiting an update to your post on Tuesday, to let us know what the tech had to say!

I feel like I ought to be joining some sort of support group: you know, stand in front of the group and say, "My name is JeanieA and I play a vintage, unrestored Chickering piano." And the group choruses back, "Hi, JeanieA!." Maybe you and Swarth should join, too?

Del, I really appreciated your post about Chickering's thought process behind the design of the Quarter Grand, and everything you said is absolutely spot-on (especially the part about the action being 'unusual' - my tech will attest to THAT!), in my experiences at least. I'm not sure I "love" my piano yet, but original "like" has now turned to "infatution," and as more work is done to it as I can afford it, I can see this developing into "love." This piano fits my home, both size and sound-wise, I appreciate its 'vintage' tone, and I do "love" the beauty of the casework.

At any rate, here's what the case can look like with the judicious application of a little bit of scratch-covering oil and a LOT of hand-rubbing with an old t-shirt: not bad for 90 years old! You can also see, in the serial number picture, why we can't date the piano exactly. Recently, I found photos of a local here advertising a piano that was the twin to mine, and he told me his serial number indicated his piano was built in 1923.

Jeanie, I love your piano, too! Thanks for commenting and sharing your pictures. Good luck with the piano! I clearly remember when I was a small child (50 years ago), listening to various relatives playing ours when it still sounded terrific. It's really only the last 10 years to so that it has started sounding bad. Hoping for good news on Tuesday!

Patty

The piano technician/mover came today, and this is what my mom reported back to me:
"They are going to do some initial repair and then see what the lay of the land looks like. When Frank turned the piano on its side and you could see all the underpinnings – he was IMPRESSED! The wood is in FANTASTIC shape – the “working parts” need the help, though! He thinks the piano is older than 1904 – probably 1895. He is going to discuss all of the options with Kathy, but I think he was pleasantly surprised. He used the term “great” for being the ORIGINAL piano! He made some social commentary, too – said that the owners must have been wealthy because this piano would have been expensive at that particular time and out of reach of most people!"

We had been told by someone who looked up the serial number that this was a 1905 piano. Is there a chance that could be wrong?

I can check the serial number for you. In my spare time I have been developing a catalogue of Chickerings from 1880 to ~1910 with over 70 individuals recorded. From the serial numbers I can be a bit more precise than the general numbers that are usually given. I'm really glad to see you want to preserve this great piece of American history. It is truely a family heirloom.

That would be great! The serial number is 103131.

And the original owners were my great-grandparents, William M. and Rosa Alice Bostwick, of Jacksonville.

Thanks!

Patty

I totally forgot to mention that my sister and my mother discovered one of the reasons the piano had begun to sound bad in the past ten years ... It's only in that period of time that my mom has had a young grandson around her house, and when they opened the piano, inside they found a couple of his marbles and matchbox cars ... ahem. My sister then played the piano and said it sounded pretty good!

I have determined that your Quarter Grand would be a 1904. The legs also inidicate this date as they were a transition from the more elaborate victorian legs, starting around 1896.

Edit: I have added your Quarter Grand to my database, thanks. To other Chickering owners, I would love to add your pianos to my data base, I have over 400 pictures now and growing.

Thank you again; the 1904 date matches what someone else told my Mom after using the serial number to look it up, so must be the same "source."

If you want the current piano owner's name and location, I can give that to you for your database; not sure what info you keep in that. But I'd rather do that by a private message than here on the forum.

My sister has had the piano moved to the technician's place and said he was very passionate about the history of the piano and about preserving it in our family. He will work on the piano over the next several months (asking for it sooner apparently increases the price quite a bit, but as my sister has not had it at her house to date, she can wait a few more months to get it, when it will be playable again). She found the pricing to be very reasonable, especially considering what she had heard from other people who had not seen the piano.

I'm just so thrilled that the piano will be restored and kept in our family. In a few months, when it is at my sister's house, I'll see if I can get her to record something she is playing on it, so that I can share it with you. Thank you all again for the info and your encouragement and enthusiasm!

A little over a year later, our Chickering piano is fully restored and plays beautifully again! My sister is very happy with it. Just thought I'd bring you all up to date.

I am anxious but the pic is not showing. :-(

Oh, please fix the photo... I'd love to see (and hear!) how the piano turned out.

Do you have a short list of what work was done? I'm trying to decide how to proceed with my own Quarter Grand.

I don't know why the picture's not showing. I will ask my sister for a list of what was done to the piano. She posted a video on her Facebook page, but I don't know how to download it to add it here. I'll see if I can get her to put it on YouTube or something else that I can link to here.

I still can't get the photo to add ...

Read about posting photos in the FAQ section. You cannot add attachments here.

I've been trying to follow instructions in the FAQ, but I am totally confused by what it says there. I'll try again.

I added the photos in the photo gallery on the Piano World page.

Link to video of my sister playing the restored piano!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7aMIuqK13U

What you need to have to imbed a picture is the address of the picture itself, rather than the page the picture is on. On a Mac, you can control-click on the picture and copy the picture's URL from the contextual menu. That may be right-clicking on a PC. Then you can use that address to imbed the URL, like this: