Showing posts with label Petrof. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Petrof. Show all posts

Monday 11 October 2021

Petrof Pianos

Antonin Petrof studied the art of piano making with his uncle, Jan Heitzmann in Vienna. Returning to Bohemia in 1864 established the Petrof Piano Company and began building pianos. The following year his father’s joinery behind the Cathedral of Svaty Duch was repurposed to make it more suited to building pianos.

In 1874 Petrof pianos moved to larger facilities for manufacturing operations, eventually producing their own keyboards and actions. Business was steadily gathering momentum so that in 1894, they began exporting their pianos abroad, and were able to set up a service centre and warehouse in Vienna.  

AntonĂ­n Petrof was appointed in 1899 to be the court piano maker of Austria-Hungary. The growth of the business continue over the next 20 years so that Petrof expanded their foreign sales - selling to Japan, China, Australia and South America.
1928, Petrof together with the American company Steinway opened a subsidiary in London. When Petrof pianos won the gold medal at the World Exhibition 1934 in Brussels, the Petrof factory employed about 400 people. 

The 100,000th Petrof piano was produced in 1963 and has their research centre for continued scientific development. After a period of state ownership the company was privatised in 1998 and was returned to family control in 2001. 



©Steve Burden

Sunday 9 November 2014

Petrof Piano Serial nos.



Year
Serial No.
Year
Serial No.
1900
13000
1964
96000
1905
16200
1966
105300
1910
24000
1968
117800
1915
30500
1970
146900
1920
33400
1972
173400
1925
38100
1974
208900
1930
46500
1976
233700
1935
52200
1978
280300
1940
58000
1980
330000
1945
62700
1981
340000
1949
66250
1983
387000
1950
67280
1985
423700
1952
69680
1990
504500
1954
73000
1995
529900
1956
77500
1997
547790
1958
82600
1999
560880
1960
87200
2001
577290
1962
90600
2003
593140

These serial numbers can be used only as a reference point.
An Exact date does not make a material difference to an assessment of a piano - a year or so out 120 years ago really is neither here more there.

The idea that 100% accuracy for all piano makers over a century ago is an interesting thought - but considering that all record keeping would be hand-written and kept in large ledger books, inaccuracies are likely. These records will be as reliable as the clerks whose job it was to keep them. The digital age of barcodes and scanned labels was still in the realm of science fiction. So we have to be content with our best guess numbers.

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