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I have just come across this rather amazing print of the "Concert and Exhibition Hall at the Royal Saxon Court Piano Factory Julius Blüthner, Leipzig" dated 1887.



I fancy that the music desk of the piano on the near right is the same style as mine.

That's the year after Franz Liszt died. I'd love to go back to that year and hear how people played then. Thanks for sharing this!

Amazing picture! Thanks so much for sharing it
Makes me want to go buy a vintage piano (or two, or three)

It's a constant temptation...

Thanks for the picture David ! So interesting !

Not a spinet nor a compressed action console to be found there!
Quite an elegant scene.

Do you have a high resolution copy of that please? In the ballroom I have some historic pictures relating to Bluthner. Another one would be very welcome.

Philip, I sent you a PM.

David,
If you are able to I also would like to have a high resolution copy to hang above my Blüthner. Would be much appreciated.
Ian

Ian, I sent you a PM.

quote=terminaldegree]Not a spinet nor a compressed action console to be found there!
Quite an elegant scene.[/quote]

Those are the typical massive uprights which I think were common at this time. After WW2 many smaller uprights were made.I think even in the late 50's this was common. (perhaps people had smaller living areas especially in Germany where
many buildings were bombed ).Grands were still made I am sure for those who could afford them .

Perhaps I am incorrect in my statements above , just my perception !

I see a lot of USA folk mentioning console pianos which are not as common in Europe. I think it all boils down to price and profit.
Ian

Just discovered a magnificent photograph of the same hall on the Blüthner web site. The web address calls it the "fluegelsaal", in other words the Grand Piano Saloon.

No I do not think now but possibly in the 50's in Germany .I have a book about the Sauter pianos which was printed in 1956 by Hans Sauter the owner of Sauter .It speaks about the
difficulties of making pianos at the "darkest times " encounted
by Carl Sauter (father) during the war.
There are photograghs in the book of console size pianos and it mentions that Hans Sauter was interested in making smaller uprights because many people lived in small apartments.
The traditional looking ones are beautiful but later they show some late 50's style pianos which look awfull to us now .
There were also Photographs of rather beautiful looking grands black ,white and wood finish .

A few weeks ago we had a thread which showed photographs of older Sauter uprights, (from the museum ) these were from about the date of the Bluthner print. (late 19th century )
These were very tall heavy looking uprights in beautiful wood
finish.
During WW2 the Bluthner factory was totally destroyed . Sauter was only one of the many small piano factories dotted around Germany. Bluthner made pianos for performers and the wealthy. However today they make console size upright pianos (44")and taller ones and of course fabulous grands.
However the tallest uprights (and big ) from the 19th century,I have ever seen is the Canadian Bell upright at a rebuilders workshop in Vancouver.

I think the uprights with the dropped action are not very common in the UK and Europe except for in Eavestaff MiniPianos and Kemble Minx pianos, and even the smallest Yamaha consoles these days have full actions.

By the way, what you would find on the instruments in that photo is the over-damper upright action, and the Blüthner patent action on the grands.

I like it that the Bluthner Grand Saloon features civilised chairs rather than benches for the comfort of their patrons...

and incidentally the fly lids of Blüthner grand pianos from that era don't lay flat when folded back because there are wooded nubs on both parts of the lid which I think was done to protect the french polish from sticking in humid or warm weather when the lid was open. The other thing it did was prevented people from piling things on top of the open lid. A lot of the pianos have had these removed by now. The new pianos don't have it but modern finishes are much more resilient.

I am early not sure about "dropped actions" , Bluthner does make 45" piano of course.On the Klaviano website there seemed to be an array of small used uprights for sale.
However many uprights sold on the continent seem sleaker and certainly no where near as tall as the uprights in that picture .
Those are massive in relation to the people. Our family pianos I have a vague memory of in England were all tall.
It was in Canada that I first saw a spinet and never knew what it was ?
However it is clear that small pianos were quite common in many parts of Europe where people lived in smaller homes especially after WW2.

Joe, that's a really interesting observation. You are saying that that is why the folded lids are not flat in the picture? My Blüthner, of a few years earlier (1881) is not quite like that. It does indeed have little nubs, one on each side of the lid, about 17" back from the hinge. But they are of rubber - now rather perished - not wood. They are just 4mm or so thick, so the lid folds virtually flat - indeed, at the centre, the gap is just about the thickness of a credit card, due to a slight sag across the width of the lid. These lids in the picture are at a much greater angle than mine.

I have always supposed that the purpose of these little nubs was to prevent the french-polish surface from getting scratched. It had never actually occurred to me that other pianos do not have them.

I'd be really interested to see what these slightly later wooden nubs look like, and how thick they are, if you have a photograph.