Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Bluthner 5694 underway

Bluthner 5694 has arrived, and work has begun. This piano really is very different from anything we have seen previously. I think we were lucky that the rim was in such bad shape, as the spine almost fell apart. I'm glad we saved all those square grand lids. We will need the rosewood, and, I think, some of the oak cores. The treble agraffs seem to have a brass pin inserted to make a bearing point

[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/eyxgVwqWec6VoHkOLEL_lgCeVoS-qAKhSmiwADXW4nE=w640-h480-no[/img]

[img]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/rUk2BEB3XKzXUMAtH2bapdomJPF3x31FvT946XFDzdU=w276-h207-p-no[/img]

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6gS6Hw0HD5anzRxcOtBsdmNrYzH_-9YkXT_QEk9BClA=w276-h207-p-no[/img]

For the curious, this is the big file of pics:

https://plus.google.com/photos/1054...1572534921429841?authkey=CNi8gKKat8Hm3AE

It says I need permission to view the album (last link).

Does that make it work?

Yes, thank you!

Wow, that was some major piano porn...

I anxiously await photos of the finished piano.

The photo of the serial number says 55694, which is reasonable. That piano was made after the last date on the soundboard decal. 5694 was not.

Fascinating piano, no question. I like the way the backscale ends of the tenor go through the bass bridge. I have seen that before on older German pianos. I hope you are being paid by the hour.

I agree with BDB - the piano is not as old as it may appear, it was built in 1899.

The photos aren't working again...

What a huge stripping .. will you un glue the soundboard now ?

Thanks for the pics.

Craig Hair,thanks for these photos of a grand. We shall hope to hear its sounds in the future. I wish you patience and intelligent decisions during the restoration work this grand. Good luck!
You are happy man. I like if a tuner had intersting job

Are the photos working? I can't tell from my computer.

The date. I can easily be of either mind on the subject. The late number appears once on a paper tag that looks nothing like the paper tags I have seen pictured in other period Bluthners. The early number, I have found four clear examples, and I believe, also evidence of the obliteration of that number on the pinblock face. The four digit number could just be a rotating factory number like Chickering used. Though its presence on the block would compicate that view.

At the moment I am content to leave that question on the shelf. In either case, the piano represents an early phase of Bluthner production, one that earned him his name. This will be informative, even if it is the last Model T to roll off the line, rather than the first.

As a personal aside, my formal training, rather than music or engineering, was in philosophy and archaeology. So this question of the date is a mysterious subplot in an historic adventure. I could not be more entertained.


Yea, next comes the soundboard. Well, first come the plate support strips, then the board. I'm glad you used the term unglue. It is the clearest description of what we try to do.

I have never seen a piano that needed to come so far apart in order to put it back together.

Holy smokes! That one seriously unhappy piano! May I ask what makes it worth rebuilding? Does it have some sort of historical significance? I can't imagine wanting to pay to have such a rebuild done on a 85 key piano unless there was some great significance attached to it.

I was able to open the album again.

I noticed two different four digit numbers on the plate; 2252, and 5694. It is tempting to think of the 5694 as a working number instead of the serial number, but, the 55694 looks like it was typed onto a card and glued in there - not exactly a permanent installation. Has anyone ever seen it done that way before?

Yes, that is how Blüthner puts serial numbers on their pianos.

What makes it worth it. The piano is a family heirloom. So I guess for the client it is primarily sentiment. It cannot be replaced, and she wants it back the way she remembers. As for myself, I've already learned a lot from this piano. After all, who expects both the soundboard and plate to be recessed into the rim? So, yea, I think it is a worthwhile project.

Just a funny piano universe coincidence. I was reading stuff on Bluthner, and it was mentioned that he got his training in the shop of one A Bretschnieder. "I know that name!" I looked in the piano stacks and sure enough I have an old german square by A. Bretscheieder. I haven't had that piano on its feet in twenty years, now its interesting again.

For me the date/number question is pretty straight forward. The real number is the one on the paper: 55694, putting the piano at 1899. The 5694 is simply an abbreviation of the longer number, an in-house number. In 1899 there was no question in the factory that they were building pianos in the 50,000 range, making a few thousand per year. So they simply left off the first digit. You see that very so often: a long serial number, but a manufacturing number where they simply truncated the long serial number to the last three or four digits.

A serial # of 5694 would determine that the piano had been built in 1867. This would not only pre-date the soundboard decal dates, but also the Patent Action found in this piano.

Thanks for access to all the great pictures!

When was the patent action first introduced?

Before anyone else chimes in and declares me wrong, I will do it myself

I just did some research and found that the Blüthner Patent action, which was used into the 1920s alongside of the Erard action, was actually developed early on (Blüthner was founded in 1853) and found its way into the first pianos as early as 1856. That means that this unusual and simple, almost primitive action was used for almost 70 years. Wow.

So I stand corrected in the effort to date this piano by its action. Thanks for letting me throw the first stone (at myself)!

Hello, where did you find that mention ? I just had a look back at the Bluethner "150 years of piano making" book, and did not find such name in the early trainings of Julius Bluethner.
A. Brentschnieder was a piano maker in Leipzig, with no direct relation with Bluethner, only that he learned a lot from the lLeipzig instrument makers.
He was first cabinetmaker, worked in a factory called Hölling & Spangenberg as cabinet maker (1842-45) then he went to Ibach and various firms in Leipzich, as Foerster, Kahnt, building square pianos mostly.

I can try to scan you the historic part, was mostly trying to find your model... there is a pic showing "one of the first grands", that looks similar but probably straight strung.
The absence of aliquot should put it before a certain era, I suppose. (1872)