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Hi everyone I'm new to this as we have just taken delivery of an old piano. It is an upright grand 48inch high, birdcage action, iron frame with a stencil on it 1883/4 gold medal winner of Calcutta Award Esdaile of London. Underneath is a serial number 1120 G? Hampton. Can anyone identify this type of piano - is it Story & Clark?
Any help much appreciated.

What you have is a 48inch high Upright, birdcage action, iron frame with a stencil on it! :rolleyes:

So, are one of you tech guys here going to tell Lesann about pianos with a bird cage action? Jodi

Jodi:

You forgot about the Calcutta award.... :p

norbert

Thanks for all your constucted help - I wont be sending any other messages. I quite understood that it wasn't anything to write home about but we like it. I was only trying to discover it's origins and date it and I thought some friendly person out there maybe able to help!
Forget it I'll go somewhere else.

From the Piano Atlas:

Hampton - Made by Stroud. England

Under Stroud we have:

Stroud Piano Company, Ltd. Est. 1906, London, England by Douglas Grover and George Gladman. See Whelpdale, Maxwell and Codd, Ltd., London. Serial numbers are listed for the years 1919 - 1960

Under Whelpdale, Maxwell we have:

Est. 1876 in London. Current Address is 154 Clapham Park Road, London SW4, 7DE. Telephone 0171-978-2444. Makers of Welmar, Marshall and Rose, Knight, Broadwood, Bentley, Rogers, Hopkinson, Gerh. Steinberg, Rich, Lipp and Sohn, Zender, Stroud, Grover and Grover and Wm. de Blaise harpsichords. No serial numbers listed for these brands.

As a note to others - Is this the same Broadwood who made all of the fine looking old grands you see from time to time?

The reason no one is answering you is that they are trying to be nice - which in itself is commendable around here. Birdcage pianos were made by the thousands in England - mostly in the 20's, I believe - with an emphasis on low price rather than quality. Containers full have been shipped to the US where they can be had for very little $. The birdcage action is singularly troublesome, and it is the rare birdcage piano (at least around here) that will play at all.

Yours appears to be an exception, and you are lucky to have found it. The cabinets are always quite pretty (to say nothing of the candleholders) and the smaller size works in a lot of spaces where a larger piano would not.

Enjoy your piano!

I'm sorry, Lesann, I was not trying to come across as sarcastic - it's just that I'm not a technician, and the only thing I can tell you is what I have read out of Larry Fine's Piano book - which basically says that because of the way the dampers are positioned, and because of the wires in front of the action, and because they are so old, they are very difficult to tune and service, (and that it is also difficult to find technicians who can and will service them) and that often, the pianos are so worn out that they may not hold a tune. I was hoping that one of our more knowledgeable technicians might have had some experience with this type of piano, and could offer you some advice, but perhaps no one wanted to be the bearer of bad news? If you want to know how much it is worth, or if it can be fixed or maintained, then contact a good technician in your area - s/he should be able to give you some advice. The Fine book says that although rare, the technicians who can work on pianos such as these can sometimes be found through museums or Universities with antique instrument collections. Good luck! (we're really not such a bad bunch) Jodi