Dear Philippe,  I did check what I could find on George P. Bent, his
company, and its products.  I could not find much.

In "Pianos and their Makers", in the chapter, "Men who have made piano
history",  I read: "History is made for the west by such names as
Chickering Brothers, Bush & Lane, George P. Bent, Newman Brothers, the
Melville Clark Piano Company, Schumann Piano Company, Gram-Richtsteig,
Grinnell Brother, the Farrand Company -- famous for the manufacture of
high-grade instruments".

On an inserted page (between 410 and 411) a number of photographs
is given of the Presidents of the National Association of Piano
Manufacturers of America from 1897 to 1911.  In the year 1904 our
George P. Bent was the President, so he was a rather important figure
in the piano world in America in those days.

I guess: the Crown is a model of the Bent company, and the Combinola
(maybe also manufactured by Bent) was an add-on unit that allowed to
modify a normal upright, or maybe a player-piano, into a coin-operated
instrument.

I did ask both the Dutch Player Piano Association (they have a big
archive, but are specialized on player pianos, and not on ordinary
ones), as well as the Dutch Piano and Player Piano Museum (they pay
attention to the ordinary piano as well as to the player piano).

I'll let you know if any new information shows up.

Jan Kijlstra