Post #5 - Down To Business

OK, so that's how we (I do have a partner in crime, who eggs me on, so I refuse to take full responsibility for this - even though I'm told this is my project) got to the point where the piano was actually sitting in our house.

So what did we actually buy?

Well, this is what I know from the markings.  It's a Cadby Piano, Charles Cadby to be exact, and it was manufactured in London England, Liquorpond Street to be exact.  No, I have to ask, who in their right mind would not buy a piano sold on a street called Liquorpond???

That's according to label.  Although you can't read it - the picture above was taken without a flash and a tad blurry - the right seal bears the date 1862.  So the piano can't predate 1862.  But heck, that makes it almost a hundred years older than me and dates it to the era of the civil war. And sold on Liquorpond Street, for good measure.

On the piano block itself is the serial number: 10034.  It appears on both sides of the block.

There are also several signatures, and dates from the technicians that tuned the piano back when it was in a tunable state. 

That particular one is dated July 5, '89 (I'm assuming 1889).  The earliest, and most faded so it's hard to be sure - it will not photograph - appears to be '72.  So at the very least I have a label with the date 1862 on it and an inscription dated 1889. and possibly one from 1872.

So armed with that knowledge, I did what comes naturally - I hit the web.  It turns out that good ole Charles was from a well-known prestigous family and I was in luck - a lot is known about him and his piano endeavours.

I won't bore you with all the details (if you're really interested, you can check him out here or on his family's Wikipedia page), but Charles opened up a piano manufacturing company and shop on that famous of all streets, Liquorpond, in the 1860s.  No one knows exavtly when or where he got the skills to actually do this (although he was a cabinetmaker), but do it he did.  And thrived there until about 1874 when road expansion around London resulted in the demolition of the factory and showroom on Liquorpond Street (alas) and Charles moved shop.

We'll leave Charles' history there.  What I wanted to know was the date of the piano - or as close as I can get to it.  I found a forum discussing Cadby pianos and determined that the right seal on the label is due to Cadby receiving a medal for his pianos at the London Exhibition of 1862.  Also, that after 1874, when he moved from the fabled Liqourpond Street address, the company became known as Charles Cadby & Sons.  Now, our label just says Charles Cadby - no Sons.  So, it's likely that the age of the piano is somewhere in the range of 1862 - 1874.

As I read farther, one poster asked if the serial number 11946 could be dated.  The response was in line with what I expected - after 1862 but almost certainly (surprise surprise) before 1868.  Ok, that's a date range I can live with...  Personally, I'm saying 1866-67, given that there are 2000 numbers between my serial number and the no later than 1868 serial number.

As you may be able to tell, the more research I did - and the fact that there was actually information about this piano line (I can't even trace either line of my own family past the early 1900) - the more I was falling in love with this damn piano.  Not as a musical instrument.  Not as a lovely piece of furniture. 

As a piece of history.  I love history.  I love it a lot.

Consider... This piano might possibly have been around at the same time Abraham Lincoln was alive - it's a stretch, but only by one or two years...  Heck, if Lincoln had traveled to London and met the family who owned this piano and was invited for dinner (instead of, say, some stupid play in the US), then he probably would have sat around afterwards singing old timey songs with family and talking about the war.  And if that had happened, well, he wouldn't have been assassinated - the piano saves the day!  Depending on how you feel about the Civil War ,anyway - after moving to the South, I found out that not everyone in the whole world thinks it worked out the right way.

You see how my mind works.

All of a sudden (not really, the feeling had been growing ever since we wrestled the damn thing on the truck), I was not quite as enthusiatic about gutting it as I had been.

But that's the logical thing to do.