I recently came into possession of a Chickering & Sons piano, model #67BB. (I've been told this sort of tall upright is referred to as an 'upright grand,' but I don't know for sure.) The serial number is 93030. According to the Piano Blue Book, this means it was manufactured between 1850 (serial numbers beginning 10000) and 1905 (serial numbers beginning 105000). Because the serial number of. As a rule of thumb, if you are researching a grand piano, it will have a 5- or 6-digit serial number. The Chickering grand pianos with 4-digit serial numbers are only infrequently encountered.

1. Chickering And Sons Piano Value
2. Chickering Piano For Sale
3. Chickering And Sons Piano Serial Numbers
4. Chickering Piano Blue Book

Chickering & Sons was an American pianomanufacturer located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1823 by Jonas Chickering and James Stewart, but the partnership dissolved four years later. By 1830 Jonas Chickering became partners with John Mackay, manufacturing pianos as 'Chickering & Company', and later 'Chickering & Mackays' until the senior Mackay's death in 1841, and reorganized as 'Chickering & Sons' in 1853. Chickering pianos continued to be made until 1983.

History[edit]

It was P.T. Barnum who persuaded Jenny Lind - the Swedish Nightingale - to make a concert tour of the United States. After her agreement, Barnum commissioned the Chickering company to manufacture a custom grand piano for her nationwide tour, ultimately involving 93 performances. The piano was completed by August 1850; Lind arrived in September and the concert series began in Boston. Her pianist was Otto Goldschmidt, whom she married at the end of her tour.

Coincidentally, as the tour began, Henry E. Steinway (Steinweg) and his large family arrived in New York as immigrants from Germany. Henry attended the opening night of the NYC concert series but showed little interest in the diva. His profound interest was in the Chickering piano, to which he dashed for such careful examination that he nearly had to be hauled away so the concert could begin.

On December 1, 1852, a fire destroyed Chickering's piano factory located at 336 Washington Street in Boston. One policeman was killed. The walls of the building collapsed, and set adjoining structures on fire. A new factory was built in 1853-54 at 791 Tremont Street in Boston. From 1860-1868 space in the building was the location of the Spencer Repeating Rifle Company, who made over 100,000 rifles and carbines for the U.S. Army and sportsmen from 1862-1868.^[1] This structure still stands today. It was renovated into artist studios in 1972.^[2]

Jonas Chickering made several major contributions to the development of piano technology, most notably by introducing a one-piece, cast-iron plate to support the greater string tension of larger grand pianos. He also invented a new deflection of the strings, and in 1845 the first convenient method for over stringing in square pianos. Instead of setting the strings side by side, the company introduced substituting an arrangement of the string in two banks, one over the other. This not only saved space but brought the powerful bass strings directly over the most resonant part of the sound-board, a principle used to this day in the construction of all pianos, both grands and uprights.

Chickering was the largest piano manufacturer in the United States in the middle of the 19th century, but was surpassed in the 1860s by Steinway. In 1867, Jonas's son Frank Chickering had the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honour, then one of the world's most prestigious non-military awards, bestowed upon him by Emperor Napoleon III for services to the art of music, one of more than 200 awards the piano manufacturer garnered over the years.

The company became in 1908 part of the American Piano Company (Ampico),^[3] and continued after the merger in 1932 of American with the Aeolian Company, to form Aeolian-American. That company went out of business in 1985, and the Chickering name continued to be applied to new pianos produced by Wurlitzer and then the Baldwin Piano Company.

Chickering Halls[edit]

The firm commissioned and operated several concert halls in Boston and New York:

Chickering And Sons Piano Value

• Chickering's building, Boston (c. 1850s), no.334 Washington St.^[4]
• Chickering's Hall, Boston (1860-1870), no.246 Washington St.^[5]
• Chickering Hall concert auditorium, 130 5th Avenue, New York City (1877), designed by George B. Post, and the venue for Oscar Wilde's first lecture in America in 1882 (razed) ^[6][7]
• Chickering Hall, Boston (1883-c. 1894), no.152 Tremont St., near West St.^[8]
• Chickering Hall, Boston (1901-c. 1912), Huntington Ave., corner of Massachusetts Ave.^[4]
• Chickering Hall, 27 West 57th Street, NYC (1923), designed by Cross & Cross (1924)^[9]

Images[edit]

• The Chickering factory in 1895.

• Portrait of George H. Chickering (d.1899)^[10]

• Antique piano at Stanley Hotel (note the 'C...e...g' in 'Chickering' aligns with the CEG chord on the piano)

• Chickering Hall, New York, no.130 5th Av.

• Chickering Hall, Boston, Huntington Ave., c. 1900s

• Chickering Monument by Thomas Ball (1872).

References[edit]

1. ^Marcot, Roy A. 'Spencer Repeating Firearms' 1995.
2. ^Chickering Piano Works Fire at CelebrateBoston.com
3. ^Grove's dictionary of music and musicians. NY: 1920
4. ^ ^abThe commemoration of the founding of the house of Chickering & Sons upon the eightieth anniversary of the event, 1823-1903. Boston: Chickering & Sons, 1904
5. ^'Closing of a Well-Known Concert Room.' Dwight's Journal of Music, v.30, no.5, May 21, 1870.
6. ^https://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/lectures-1882/january/0109-new-york.html
7. ^Source: New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age, Robert A.M. Stern (Author), Thomas Mellins (Author), David Fishman (Author)
8. ^'Americanization of piano trade in U.S. exemplified by Chickering & Sons.' The Music Trades, April 5, 1919
9. ^Miller, Tom. 'The 1924 Chickering Hall -- No. 27-29 West 57th Street'. Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
10. ^George H. Chickering Dead; Last Male Survivor of the Well-Known Family of Piano-forte Makers Passes Away in Boston.' New York Times, November 18, 1899

Further reading[edit]

• Chickering & Sons. Catalog, 1883
• Chickering & Sons. Exhibit of musical instruments, Boston, 1902

External links[edit]

• Chickering in the grand piano-Photoarchive^{[permanent dead link]}
• Boston Public Library. Chickering Piano Factory building. Boston, South End. Photo by J.J. Hawes, 19th century
• Flickr.
  • Photo of Piano Factory, Tremont St., South End, Boston, 2011
  • Photo of Piano Factory, Tremont St., South End, Boston, 2010

Piano serial numbers identify the (1) age of your piano, the (2) piano's year of manufacture, as well as (3) the circumstances surrounding the production of your piano, including factory history, manufacturing processes, and company ownership and oversight.

You can look up a free piano serial number history search from this page (see list of manufacturers, below).

Piano Serial Numbers:
Location, location, location...

Piano serial numbers usually have five to seven digits, but may have fewer or more, depending on the manufacturer and age of your piano. Serial numbers may also include a letter as well.

Here are the TOP FIVE places to locate the serial number of your spinet, console, studio, or upright piano:

Serial number locations are found:

1) On the piano’s cast iron plate. After lifting up the lid, look along the top front area of the plate. The serial number may be to the right or the left, or in the middle.
2) Under the opened lid on the ledge, stamped on a little plaque, to the right or to the left.
3) Stamped on the back of the piano; near the top of the wood frame.
4) Printed on one of the hammers, found on either end of the piano (newer or imported pianos).
5) Printed on one the keys - behind the nameboard, inside the piano (newer or imported pianos).

Chickering Piano For Sale

If you cannot find the serial number in any of the locations listed on this page, please watch the video below, to help find more piano serial number locations.

Grand Piano Serial Numbers
Where Are They Found? ...

Here are the TOP FIVE places to locate the serial number of your BABY GRAND or GRAND piano:

(See this link for a detailed picture of where to look)

Note: You may have to remove the (1) music desk first and (2) gently clean out any dust from your piano's plate [using a soft dry cloth + vacuum hose] before you can find these numbers.

Serial number locations are found:

1) On the piano’s cast iron plate, near the tuning pins, as you face the keys. Look to the right or to the left.

2) The Capo d'astro bar. Located on the right, this acts as a 'bridge' to the 'beams' of the cast iron plate.

3) On the piano's soundboard (see link above for a diagram).

4) On a metal plate underneath the piano's top lid, near the strings and soundboard.

5) Immediate interior [front]: On the back of the [a] keyslip (long wooden ledge, runs along the front/bottom of the piano's keys. The serial number is often hidden and stamped on the other side, facing the keys). On the front of the [b] action frame (after the keyslip is removed), or stamped on [c] one or both of the cheek blocks, viewed to the right and left of the piano's keyboard.

On older pianos, you may find 3-5 screws, underneath the keyslip, that will need to be removed (or, simply lift up, if no screws are present) to view the action frame. The serial number may be stamped on the front of the frame's wooden base, immediately under the keys.

To the right and left of the keys are two end cheek blocks, which are each secured down with a giant bolt or screw, which passes through the piano's keybed, both of which must be removed, to access the interior of the piano (see video, above).

Caution: When unscrewing and removing the cheek blocks, do not mistake the piano's leg screw/bolt, with the cheek block's screw/bolt.

Also, be careful not to drop the cheek blocks once they are removed, which can gouge and permanently damage the piano's case, and the block's delicate condition.

To recap: the piano's serial number may be hidden on the back of the piano'skeyslip (immediately in front of / below the keys), on the action's frontkeyframe, on the cheek blocks (each side), or within the action itself, once removed from the piano.

Scroll down below to find the (1) manufacturer of your piano, and then (2) click on the link to find the serial number.

(Please be patient as we are updating this page on a daily basis. We invite you to SUBSCRIBE to this page, and to use the search box above, as serial numbers are being updated and added on an ongoing basis.)

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The Pierce Piano Atlas, 12th Edition now in hardcover format, provides a wealth of information about the piano manufacturing industry. Over 12,000 piano names are included, some dating back to the early eighteen hundreds. This guide provides references to serial numbers, dates of manufacture, factory locations, a brief history of many manufacturers and other pertinent information.

The Piano Book is the bible of the piano marketplace. An indispensable resource to buyers and owners of pianos, amateur and professional pianists alike. This book evaluates and compares every brand and style of piano sold in the United States.

Information on how the piano works, ages, and the difference between different piano brands is discussed in great detail. There is also a wealth of diagrams of parts, information on manufacturing, maintenance, moving and storage, inspecting new and used pianos, the special market for Steinways, and sales gimmicks to watch out for.
Playing Piano for Pleasure is a practical guide to learning and playing the piano for fun! Includes material from the author's interviews with master pianists, artists, and writers. The result is a book that should be cherished for years to come.

Chickering And Sons Piano Serial Numbers

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Chickering Piano Blue Book