Antique Mahogany Upright Grand Piano Bush and Lane

Moving Sale! Pick up only. See many other items for sale and make offers. This piano needs to be restored but I never got around to it. It's a gorgeous decorative piece in my dining room. It is American made circa 1917. Restored value is over $30,000.00. Detailed information from a professional piano restoration company: AGE:  Based on the serial number you provided, your piano was built circa 1917.   GENERAL INFORMATION:  Your piano is made of imported Honduran Mahogany wood under the old finish and is of the Empire Revival style.  This was one of Bush & Lane’s largest and most expensive upright piano models.  The piano would be quite beautiful if professionally restored.   The piano appears to be in original, unrestored condition with the old worn strings and felts still present.  The average piano has about a 50-year life span before the felts, leather and strings deteriorate and need restoration.  The fact your piano is in such good condition at this age is a real testament to the quality that went into building it!     Your piano appears to be a full-size “Upright Grand” piano, not a studio upright, console or spinet size piano.  Most full-size “Upright Grand” pianos measure between 50” - 58” tall.  These tall full-size “Upright Grand” pianos have larger soundboards and longer strings than most modern baby grand pianos so their tone quality is more comparable to a full size grand.  This superior sound quality cannot be found in most small modern upright pianos built today.     If you look at the soundboard in your piano, you will see that the grain in the wood is very close together.  When that tree was growing 200 years ago, the world’s forests were very dense and trees had to struggle to grow.  As a result, the wood rings are very close together due to slower growth.  This wood with tight rings is more resonate and has much better tone quality than new pianos.  Unfortunately, most of this quality wood is gone forever.  New pianos with green wood do not have the same sound because they are not as deep and resonate in tone quality.  As these pianos are destroyed, this wonderful wood is lost forever.  Luckily, people are beginning to realize the quality of these vintage instruments and they are investing in their restoration and preservation for future generations to enjoy.   Here are some things to consider about your piano:  Any piano this old will require total restoration.  Pianos are made of materials that tend to deteriorate over time.  Felt, leather and rubber tends to simply break down and rot over the years, making it necessary for these materials to be replaced.  When a piano is in tune, there is approximately 17 tons of tension on the strings, and old, worn out strings just won't hold it.  Most piano tuners don't like to tune vintage pianos because the strings tend to break under tension.  Decades of rust, corrosion and deterioration simply break these strings down over time.  Many people approach us with the assumption that their piano just needs a good "tune up" to be in perfect playing condition...that simply isn't the case!  These people are amazed to learn that restoration is almost always necessary on these vintage instruments.   VALUE:  At any given time you will see an original unrestored upright piano on eBay and Craig’s List available for next to nothing because people don’t know what they have.  Because of eBay and Craig’s List, it is nearly impossible to get a good price for an upright piano that is not totally restored.  Properly restored upright pianos are almost impossible to find because most piano shops do not take the time to take upright pianos seriously – they prefer to specialize in more traditional, profitable baby grand and grand piano restoration.  As a result, the market is seeing properly restored upright pianos bringing top dollar on a regular basis.   Sadly, we see these wonderful instruments sell for only a fraction of their actual value prior to restoration.  We sometimes see them sell for as little as several hundred dollars on eBay and in antique malls in original, unrestored condition: even if they appear to be in very good original condition.  Restored, however, they are potentially quite valuable.  We routinely sell these restored upright pianos for $25,000 - $35,000 USD in our shop after restoration.  This is not an inflated figure, but an actual figure that these pianos really are selling for after restoration.  Your piano is definitely a high-grade instrument that is well worth restoration and preservation. 

Condition

Used (normal wear)