Mechanical Music Digest  Archives
Home Archives Calendar Gallery Store Links Info
MMD > Archives > July 2003 > 2003.07.25 > 12Prev  Next


Eavestaff Autopiano of London
By Julian Dyer

This is exactly what it says: an Autopiano action (from New York)
fitted to a London-made Eavestaff piano.  The fitting would have
been done by or for Kastner & Co, who had the exclusive dealership
for Autopiano in London (they have been mentioned in MMD on various
occasions).  They used a fairly wide variety of pianos, Eavestaff being
one of the cheaper ones.  Kastner later changed their name to Autopiano,
and production continued surprisingly late into the 1930s.

The UK-made Marque Ampico I have appears to be an Eavestaff, and is a
perfectly decent nicely-made piano.  I think that after 1925 they were
part of the Brasted group, Percy Brasted being responsible for developing
a Swedish design into the Minipiano (a tiny Art Deco console model) and,
even more improbably, making such a success of it that the design was
sold on to Hardmann Peck in the USA!

Julian Dyer


(Message sent Fri 25 Jul 2003, 09:17:38 GMT, from time zone GMT+0100.)

Key Words in Subject:  Autopiano, Eavestaff, London

Home    Archives    Calendar    Gallery    Store    Links    Info   



Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD

Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2008 by Jody Kravitz.

Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site.

Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website.

Please support publication of the MMD by donating online

Pay via PayPal

No PayPal account required

                           
Pay via Amazon
Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
Please do not use
the anonymous option!
. .