Our Old Piano in a New Home
From our cleaning session a few weeks ago, we decided we needed to give our piano away. When we closed on the house, we elected to keep it… and it’s been sitting, unplayed but litered good intentions, for some time now.
As much as we wanted to keep it, Liz and I realized we simply had no room for it. So we began investigating donation options, posting it on Craigslist, Facebook, etc.
Fortunately, I happened to mention the piano to our neighbor, Andrew – and he expressed interest. He told us that he learned how to play on this very piano, and that his daughter was interested in keeping it.
A view of the keys. The piano, as far as we could tell, was still pretty functional – just needed a serious tuning.
The keys actually look a lot better in this light. In person, they seem to be a little darker/browner.
Our piano was a P.A. Starck Piano. I learned that, at its size, it’s considered a “Spinet” piano… and worth around $300 – $400. If you believe random people on the Internet.
The company closed in 1965, so I know the piano is at least 51 years old!
Amazingly, I found a thread where people were comparing their Starck piano serial numbers. Ours is 126981.
I found two options for donating pianos in Chicago. The first is the PianoForte Foundation, but they won’t take pianos older than 20 years (and also don’t take spinets).
Keys 4/4 Kids will actually accept any piano, regardless of age or size. But the drawback is that they require an offset fee (to cover the cost of moving, transporting, and repairing the donation) of about $300.
Again, luckily for us, Andrew wanted to take the piano – and elected to cover the cost of the movers. Win/Win in our minds, and we’re especially happy it’s going to a home that has some history.
Related:
Hauschka and the Prepared Piano
Playing the Player Piano
Gould
The piano was manufactured in 1946, and I am happy that it found a good home.
Starck descendent (February 27, 2021 at 6:06 pm)