Eavestaff Piano with numbers 25581 on box and 73489 on sound board

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suzettesjw
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Eavestaff Piano with numbers 25581 on box and 73489 on sound board

Post by suzettesjw »

We received an older piano from my husband's family that has two large brand markers for "Eavestaff London" and "Eavestaff Pianos" as Cast Iron plaques screwed onto the cast iron sound board. It also has "EAVESTAFF EST<sup>D</sup> 1823 LONDON" engraved into the underside of the keyboard cover. It is an upright which looks to be in a style from turn of the century, possibly 1910-1920 due to the simplistic, arts and crafts sort of design, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure what the serial number is as there are multiple numbers stamped onto various surfaces of the piano...

<ul><li>Engraved into the cast iron sound board in the upper left corner, additionally punched into the right side of the keyboard cover in two places, and finally crudely stamped into the top of the bottom panel: 73489</li>
<li>Stamped onto the top of the left panel of the piano under the top lid: 25581</li>
<li>Cast into the lower part of the sound board along the base of the piano: 127 12</li><li>Hand painted into the wood on each side of the keyboard, inside the cabinet (only seen when the keyboard cover is lifted off): 484</li></ul>

Other markings include:
<ul><li>A partially obscured brand that looks like "HERRBURGER, BROOKS, LT<sup>D</sup>... LONDON" behind the hammers in the action portion of the soundboard.</li>
Capital "H" and "MADE IN GREAT BRITIAN" is cast into the lower right part of the sound board</li></ul>

It was purchased by my husband's family second hand while they were living in Morocco starting sometime near the late 1920's into the early 1930's (I will try to get better dates), but they lived in Morroco for many years and I am not sure when they acquired it. It was moved to Spain after the Spanish civil war.

It has surprisingly good action and it not as out of tune as I would expect considering it has not been cleaned and tuned in many, many years. It will need a thorough cleaning, etc...

Do you think you can determine the age of it?

Below are photos of the piano:
Piano covered
Piano covered
Piano uncovered
Piano uncovered
Serial numbers detail
Serial numbers detail
Decorative detail
Decorative detail
Partially hidden brand in the middle of the sound board
Partially hidden brand in the middle of the sound board
chrisw
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Re: Eavestaff Piano with numbers 25581 on box and 73489 on sound board

Post by chrisw »

Looks to be a nice piano which has been well cared for. In my opinion the serial number is 73489 but I haven't been able to find a list of Eavestaff serial numbers which go back earlier than 1950.

Herrburger Brooks is the name of the company that made the action and perhaps the keys. They were a well respected brand of action makers.

Have a look at https://www.pianohistory.info/numbers.html where it suggests Herrburger Brooks were founded in 1920
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