[lakeman]

Hello Bill, I was over to the daughter's house, and knowing I traded a lot on ebay, she asked me about selling the old family piano, which she has decided she no longer has room for. She had the walnut cabinent refinished, and mechanics inside reworked 30 years ago for her daughter, who never took up with it. I proceeded to get some information I found in it, and told her I would get on the net and see if I could find out any info to help her. Inside the piano, I found the serial number, which was 425261, and what appears to be a decal, stating "Ludwig & Co", and under that, "Paris 1900 Trademark", and on both sides of these two lines of information was a decorative shield / emblem, both with French writing circling the outer edges of these shields / emblems, and I decided the piano must be from France (I could not read the French writing). Upon returning home, I made an extensive search on google (where I found your forum, and your other sights), and from my searches on google, and searching and reading every post on your forum concerning "Ludwig", I decided the piano was not very old, as all serial numbers on your forums postings apeared to be much earlier than ours, but what really raised my curiosity, and puzzles me is that all research I have made shows the Ludwig pianos coming from the Ludwig Piano Co New York, and the only location noted in our piano's emblems points to Paris France. Can you explain to me what the actual facts are with our aparently French instrument? And thanks in advance for any information you can give to enlighten me.

[Bill Kibby]

Ludwig received exhibition medals in 1900 Paris, 1901 Buffalo, 1902 England. My guess is that (as often happens with advertising) the words are not in logical order, and "trademark" is not related to "Paris 1900". The serial numbers published in various "Piano Atlases" are all under 200,000. Have a look at the Medals link at www.PianoGen.org
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I do not buy, sell or value pianos, but I sometimes rescue pre-1890 pianos in the UK.

Have a look at the Datemarks page on my own website: http://www.pianogen.org

Piano History Centre