Year and make of Hoffman piano

Skidaddle · Post by **Skidaddle** » 09 Jan 2018, 21:34

Sorry if this is posting twice, made a post but it vanished.

Can anyone offer any help on brand and year of my new piano I bought. It says Hoffman but I can find nothing on the serial number and the serial number is only on the reverse and looks like it was stuck on as a bit of an after thought 😀

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 11 Jan 2018, 18:01

It looks very like a couple of Russian pianos I tune...if you look inside the top, down to the right, can you see any cyrillic script on a label there? If you could take a pic with the top door off (the bit against which your music rests, where the fancy moulding is) we'd be able to tell a bit more. If not Russian it might be east european.

Skidaddle · Post by **Skidaddle** » 11 Jan 2018, 21:33

Hi Gill

Thanks for the reply. Sadly nothing there :( I’ve yet to find any writing or marking except for in the back. I checked the hammers etc but zilch

Post by **Bill Kibby** » 11 Jan 2018, 22:14

To quote my Names page
http://www.pianohistory.info/names.html

Names like Hofman, Hoffman, Hoffmann, Hofmann, Haufmann and Hauptmann can be found on many old pianos, and although some of these were real makers' names, such as Hofmann & Czerny, some are certainly fake, for example most “Hauptmann” pianos were definitely sold by Stiles. There were over 40 different piano and music firms worldwide with the spelling HOFFMANN!

Another quote from the same page...
An ad in a trade catalogue from the seventies offered "gold" transfers at a mere 10p each for the following names:

English Names: Clifford, London; Elmore & Son, London; Graham, London; Gresham & Co., London; Heywood & Sons, London; Lincoln, London; Powell & Co., London; Raymond & Co., London; Studholme & Sons; Windsor Model.

Continental Names: Paul Gerard; Hoffman; Karl Lange; Schumann; Schonberg; Steinbach; Steinmayer; Steinmetz; Maxime Freres, London & Paris; Wagner Model.

Skidaddle · Post by **Skidaddle** » 12 Jan 2018, 01:01

Thanks Bill! That’s a good read. I did expect that it would be possibly a sticker on as it screams a little of cheap Chinese import but it’s nice to play and just getting me back into the swing of things.

For £50, I certainly can’t complain