Ivers & Pond

William H Ivers started making pianos in 1872 and clearly his pianos were substantial enough to earn a reputation for robust reliability. With Handel Pond the Ivers & Pond Piano Company was established in 1880 and based in Boston, Massachusetts while the factory was at Cambridgeport.

Known for their enviable build quality Ivers & Pond pianos were the choice of many colleges and schools and of course the private buyers who loved them for the elaborately striking and luxuriant casework. 

The insides of the pianos were no less well put together - said to be the equal in design and excellence of manufacture of any of the many big makers in America at the time. 

Their range of pianos went from baby grands up to the concert grand, Uprights of course and even player pianos. Universally respected and loved for their pleasing tone quality.

Ivers & Pond were consolidated into the Aeolian-American Corporation. The Ivers & Pond pianos continued to be made by Aeolian until the 1980s

The Aeolian Corporation was established by William Tremaine in 1887. He manufactured mechanical self-playing organs, later becoming the Aeolian Company sometime after 1895. Aeolian became a vast enterprise on the popularity of the player piano.   

Aeolian controlled many piano companies and was manufacturing pianos and organs in factories across America and in Europe. In 1932 it merged with the American Piano Corporation. Up until closing in 1985, Aeolian manufactured pianos using names from the many piano companies they controlled.

Ivers & Pond Serial Nos.

Piano Maker Directory

©Steve Burden

The Piano Tuner's Visit

The Piano Tuner’s visit is one of the things that so easily slips down the priority list. Subscriptions for the phone, TV, broadband, the dentist, the car, MOT, house insurance, school kit… etc.

On and on it goes! It’s a wonder we get through to the end of the month!

There ought to be some clever scheme that makes the piano being tuned important enough to warrant being placed higher up on the list of ‘to-do’ jobs!

I am old enough not to care about being old. I hate feeling cornered or obliged to be paying out money unless I really appreciate to the full what I am paying for. 

A reply to a tuning reminder sent a while ago, said that ‘my husband says the piano is still perfectly in tune so we will leave it this time.’ 

While I respect where he is coming from I am aghast at his priorities! What can be more important than having the piano tuned?

In the great mix that makes up the society of modern times, I do have some nostalgia for the slower pace of bygone days - days of not so very long ago. Days when nobody cared if you spent your evenings playing the piano or reading a book. Watching TV was a lazy persons way to pass the time.  Today it is all about 'surfing the web', or looking at social media, or exploring the endless choice of streaming services!  

Writing a blog is my nod to the internet - some things cannot be avoided. But I still feel that creativity is known and experienced at its best when there is a piano being played!

Tuner's Journal

©Steve Burden