This week Naomi relocated from Oatlands to Sisters Beach permanently. Neither of us had time to take a lot of photos of the loading or unloading because a) we were busy and b) it was raining pretty much the whole time. However, it did stop towards the end of the unloading so I thought that you might be interested in the journey of Naomi’s piano which was the last thing out of the truck.
As you can see it took four men to move it safely from the truck to the house. Here it is in position.
The candelabra that are mounted on the piano were packed separately and have not been put back yet but this is how it usually looks.
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It is quite an interesting old piano which Naomi was told is from the Edwardian era so over a hundred years old now. It is iron framed and was made in New York and sent to Launceston. Naomi bought it at an antique shop in Ross some years ago but has never been able to find out much about the maker. Inside the piano it says R Stenmar, New York. She even contacted the website of a piano museum about it sending them all the information she had but they didn’t know either. So if anyone knows anything about R Stenmar of New York we would love to know.
Our Other Blog: Two Sisters and Two Points of View 
Pianos have always been a “small market” business. Even smaller today because getting a steel mill to pour the harps is a problem. Most mills aren’t designed for small jobs. There is no company with that name, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t made by a larger company and given a name. Sometimes they only made a few pianos of one type and moved on. Its NY branding eliminates a lot of stuff made in England during the Edwardian period when those lights were popular. It’s also not a player piano. AND because it’s an upright and it isn’t as fancy as Edwardian instruments tended to be, it was probably built around 1920 because that was the biggest year for piano sales ever and by then, upright pianos were much more popular than baby grands. I had a baby grand — got it as a 14th birthday present (some present!). Except that when we moved, we had to put it in a room of its own — our second bedroom and I finally sold it because there was simply no room for it. My parents had a huge old house. Ours was old (not as old as theirs) but NOT huge. The only room big enough for it, other than what would normally have been the master bedroom, was the dining room.
I’ve always been sorry about losing my Steinway, something I would never again be able to afford.
just because you can’t find the name doesn’t mean you can’t figure out who probably built it. Check out:
https://antiquepianoshop.com/
and keep poking around when you have time. If you have the money to have it properly restored, you can get a lot of money for it, though maybe not in Tasmania.
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Thanks Marilyn, we’ll follow it up. I did wonder if it was made by a larger company for a store or something like that. We will try and get it looked at one day. Neither of us can play but Naomi has been trying to learn.
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Over 100 years! That’s a true relic. Would love to hear how it sounds!
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Maybe I’ll be able to record it one day.
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That would be cool 🙂
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