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Common Sense Antiques

The Antique Detective: 18th Century English Furniture

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, May 2007

Q.  Can you give me any information on a piano? On the key lid it says "LOUD ESTABLISHED 1812 BUFFALO CABINET GRAND" in gold lettering. The cabinet seems to be of walnut. It is very dark with pretty details to the wood. On the top lid is the imprint "MFTD ESPECIALLY  for Rob T. Loud Buffalo New York by Jacob Doll & Sons New York". There are two numbers on the piano. One, #100289, is engraved in the wood on the inside and another, #7328, is engraved in the back under the top.

My questions are how old is the piano, who is/was Rob T. Loud, is Jacob Doll & Sons still in business and what is the difference between a grand piano and a cabinet grand piano, any idea of the value?

A. Your cabinet grand is of a type known as a "stencil" piano. That is a piano made by a manufacturer for another manufacturer or for an important dealer who wants his own line of pianos. This was a very common practice in the early 20th century but was basically discontinued after WWI until recently.

Jacob Doll & Sons was established in New York in 1871 and was active until 1931 according to the Pierce Piano Atlas. They made numerous stencil pianos and also controlled a number of labels including Stodart Frederick, Welsmore Shattinger, Hudson, Lakewood, Baus and about a dozen others. The company manufactured nearly every essential component of their pianos according to a contemporary newspaper account. Jacob Doll died in 1911 leaving a business and factory capable of turning out 15,000 pianos a year. The company was also heavily involved in the manufacture of player pianos.

On your piano the engraving of 100289 is the serial number and indicates a manufacture date of 1910. The other number, 7328, is probably the style of the case or the finish number.

Robert T. Loud was a piano merchant in Buffalo, New York and in Niagara Falls around the turn of the century who evidently bought private label pianos from Doll but he also bought from others including W. P. Haines, another manufacturer also from New York.

The term "cabinet grand" or "upright grand" refers to the extremely tall pre-Depression era pianos. Their great height enabled them to have strings and soundboards of a quality equal to and in some exceeding ordinary flat or "cockeye" grands. It was a space saving innovation that disappeared along with high ceilings and radiator heat.

Value in older pianos like yours is sometimes difficult to establish. Most from this era need extensive repair or rebuilding. Many of the old soundboards are just not up to the task and the old actions don't quite meet modern expectations. You need to have your piano examined by a local piano dealer to get some idea of the value of the piece. 

Q. Dear Sir - You will find two photos of a set of Mr. And Mrs. chairs that were a wedding gift in 1897 in Cleveland, OH. Could you please tell me and other readers the name of the manufacturer and date of the company? These chairs sit quite close to the floor. The Mr. chair is about one inch taller and wider than the other. Thanks for your help.

A.  I am afraid I can't be much help here on the specifics. The chairs are obviously from around the turn of the century, made of birch and stained to simulate mahogany. Close examination of the two chairs reveals subtle differences in them other than the size, such as the number and position of the floral "fingers" on the wings of the chairs. The larger chair has four, the smaller only three. The pierced carving in the crest rail is also slightly different.

I would hazard a guess that these chairs were part of a three or five piece parlor set that was very much in style at the time. Differentiated "matching" pairs of chairs were much less common than the sets. The chairs also show a softening of the harsh lines of the prevailing styles of the day, Eastlake and Renaissance Revival. These chairs show the beginnings of the sinuous organic forms seen in Art Nouveau beginning around the turn of the 20th century. At the time these chairs were presented as wedding gifts, the factories of the mid West, Grand Rapids, Cincinnati, etc., were mostly fully engaged in turning out the current styles of the period. The Eastern factories in New York and Massachusetts were beginning to show a little moderation and were incorporating some of the new stylistic elements into their work. For that reason I would further guess these chairs were not made in the local area of Cleveland.

As to exactly who made the chairs, where and when - your guess is as good as mine. Without some form of label or identifying mark it is almost impossible to attribute a given chair or set of chairs to a given company at a specific time.