The instrument was made by the German-American luthier, Henry Richard Knopf. Recently, however, I did come across that relative rarity, a violin with what you might call a serial number. My Lorenzo Storioni violin made in Cremona, Italy in the late 1700s has no serial number on its label, nor does the violin made for me in 2006 by Samuel Zygmuntowics in Brooklyn, New York. If you look through one of the instrument’s F holes in just the right light, you can usually spy the label on its inner back stating the maker’s name, place of origin, and date of completion.
String instruments usually don’t have a serial number. I now knew not only the Steinway’s pedigree but also its date of manufacture. Madeline told me that the piano was first owned by her stepfather, the distinguished Belgian violinist and Juilliard teacher, Edward Dethier. Looking the number up on the internet, I quickly discovered that the piano had indeed been made during the Second World war, and to be even more precise, in 1944. Serial numbers! I pushed back the piano’s music rack and there it was on the inner instrument’s frame: the number 316,362.
“Probably a war piano when copper had to be used for armaments rather than musical instruments”, the piano tuner told me.įor years I wondered whether this might actually be true, until one day it occurred to me. Its strings were made of iron, rather than the traditional copper. It had arrived in beautiful condition but with one oddity. The instrument had been given to me by my dear friend- the cellist, Madeline Foley. This somehow gave me a measure of comfort in knowing that well on in age, the tractor was still able to haul rocks, dirt, and firewood around, as I was still able to draw a bow across my fiddle strings.Īnother example sat in my living room without my even thinking about its age for the longest time- a Steinway grand piano. It turned out that my tractor was made in 1941, only four years after I was born. My friends, coincidentally, were able to produce a list of Ford tractor serial numbers, each indicating the year of manufacture. After cleaning away ages of grime that had accumulated, the numbers slowly became visible. Just look at the serial number on the engine block, I was instructed. Friends who were visiting when I posed the question had an answer. After tooling around on it pleasurably for a while, I began to wonder just how old this ancient creature actually was.
SCHUBERT PIANO SERIAL NUMBER LOOKUP SERIAL NUMBERS
But serial numbers have another function that I know of from personal experience.įor example, on my fiftieth birthday, my wife Dorothea gave me a gift that I always dreamed of having- an old Ford tractor. Thinking about it, however, I have to ask the obvious: what are serial numbers good for? I guess the Gas Guzzler car company would want to know the serial number of every car as it rolls off the assembly line so they know how many Gas Guzzlers they’ve already made, when they were made, and to identify the ones that have gone wrong.
SCHUBERT PIANO SERIAL NUMBER LOOKUP TV
I imagine that dozens of objects in my own home have them- my toaster must have one, and my TV set, washing machine, microwave, electric tooth brush, telephone, and on and on.
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