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Piano Roll Date Codes
By Niels Berkers

Most of my roll collection are Hupfeld Animatic rolls.  Almost all of
them have a watermark printed of the year of (I assume) production.

Some have the word Animatic also as watermark, others contain a music
staff line with the music notes B & E.  The note B in Germany is H,
standing for Hupfeld.  I don't know what E stands for.

But back to the production year; I'm pretty sure it's not the year the
rolls were recorded of arranged, as my roll played by Theresa Carreno
bears the mark 1924.  I think it would be difficult for her to record
it in that year, because as far as I know Carreno passed away in 1917.

As my stack is currently disassembled I cannot wind all my rolls on
the take-up spool and look at what's on the end of the roll.  I unrolled
one 1922 roll by hand and it had written '109' in pencil on the end.
I have no clue what that means.

Niels Berkers


(Message sent Mon 28 Mar 2005, 19:02:58 GMT, from time zone GMT+0200.)

Key Words in Subject:  Codes, Date, Piano, Roll

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