Wednesday, May 18, 2011

My Piano

Recently, Joy at Color in My Piano hosted a Q&A session about favorite pianos.   Her questions and the responses that followed sparked my interest in finding out more about my own piano.  I currently own the piano that I practiced on as a kid.  When I moved out from my parents' place, they gave me the piano - since they no longer wanted it and since I'm the only one in the family that plays.  The piano had belonged to my grandparents and my great-grandparents.

In fact, I also own sheet music that belonged to my great-grandmother as well as some that belonged to my grandmother.  It's kind of fun to think that I'm keeping the music alive in my family. 

On my piano are the words "Weaver, Verti Mignon, York, PA."  A quick Google search pulled up the following information from the Antique Piano Shop:
"The Weaver Piano & Organ Company was established in York, Pennsylvania in 1870. They built a full line of reed organs and chapel organs, slowly phasing out organs and increasing piano production as the turn-of-the-century approached. Weaver built several popular brand names including Livingston, York, Lincoln, and Davies & Sons. After the Great Depression era, Weaver built a line of spinet, console and baby grand pianos that remained popular for several decades. The Weaver Piano & Organ Company was out of business by the late 1950s. The extant Weaver instruments we have seen come through our restoration shop have been very well made pianos, indicating that Weaver built a higher grade of instrument."

The Verti Mignon is a spinet piano.  While it's not the fanciest piano, I love my piano for its family history and for all the memories of my piano learning experience.  I jokingly say that there are some pieces it should be able to play on its own, I practiced them so many times on it! 

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