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| Passion Investments: Antiques |
Rich Resonance
Wendy Lyons Sunshine
09/01/2005
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Alan Fox was not considering investment returns nine years ago when he bought
a 73-year-old Steinway grand piano with an African mahogany wood cabinet. His
primary concerns were music, and finding a beautiful and superlative instrument
for his New Jersey home. After shopping and weighing the possibility of
acquiring a new piano, he opted for vintage. “It wasn’t because I wanted an old
piano,” Fox says of his nearly 6-foot Model O grand, made in 1923. “That era was
supposed to be very good for Steinways, and Steinways are legendary.”
 | | A 1907 Steinway Model O classic case in satin ebony. Opposite page: An
Alma-Tadema art case piano reproduction brought $675,000 at auction in 2003.
Early 20th-century pianos are considered the greatest ever made; reproductions
bring in high prices as well. |
It
turns out that Fox’s purchase was also a shrewd investment. The classic
instrument that cost him $15,000 in 1996 would bring at least twice that much
today—were he willing to part with it. Had Fox decided on a comparable new
Steinway instead, he would have paid $33,600 retail at the time, and by 2005 it
would have inched up in value to $36,000.
Many experts believe that pianos
built between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II are among
the best ever created. David Betts, head of the piano technology department at
the North Bennet Street School, a 120-year-old crafts school in Boston,
explains: “By then the designs were pretty well set, the materials they were
able to get were very good and there was still a lot of handcraftsmanship that
went into the instruments.”
Paul Lindeblad of Lindeblad Piano Restoration in
Pinebrook, N.J., who located the Model O grand for Fox, agrees. He compares
Steinway’s woodwork and sound quality of that era to a Stradivarius violin. “The
wood was really good and they aged it right. They did things a little slower
back then,” says Lindeblad, whose father spent a few years working in the
Steinway factory. To Lindeblad’s ear, Steinways from the 1920s are the best of
the best.
Before the advent of radio and phonographs, pianos were the last
word in home entertainment. By 1916, there were more than 1,600 American brands
available. Today, only two are consistently cited as superior investments.
“Steinway and Mason & Hamlin are the premier American pianos that are
certainly worth investing in if someone wants a fine, solid musical instrument,”
Betts says. Experts consider prime vintage years for Steinways to be up to 1939,
while Mason & Hamlin’s best years are considered to be through 1930, when
the company changed hands and quality reputedly slipped.
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