Mason & Hamlin Model AA. Length: 6’ 2” The Model AA primarily exists as a size upgrade for the Model A. Its greater length gives it a deeper bass.
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With so many factors involved, it is advisable for a person who is uncertain about the sound of the instrument to enlist the advice of a professional musician or someone else who knows how pianos should sound.
Less knowledgeable buyers soon discover that what they do not know about a piano would fill the Grand Canyon. If there is a hairline crack in the metal frame, the instrument is worth nothing. It is extremely difficult to find a top-quality restored instrument that has an acceptable sound and technical quality and also looks well.
Mr. Lateiner tested 23 grands at the showrooms of the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company, 922 Seventh Avenue (at 58th Street); Steinway & Sons, 109 West 57th Street; Sotheby Parke Bernet's York Avenue Galleries at 72d Street and two dealers - A & C Piano Craft Inc., 149 Wooster Street, and Camilleri Pianos, 121 West 19th Street. In each case, he played the same music - several minutes of Beethoven's 'Waldstein' Sonata and Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto.
At Baldwin, where there are very few used or remodeled grand pianos, the price when they are available is from 20 to 50 percent less than new ones, which range from $10,000 to $25,000. 'And as soon as we get them we sell them,' said Jack Roamann, manager of Baldwin's concert and artist department. More often than not, he continued, 'our clients sell their grands privately.' Those that are sold by Baldwin, however, carry a warranty (Steinway also gives a warranty).
Mr. Lateiner played two Baldwin grands, the first of which is a 6-foot 3-inch piano that was made 16 years ago and was formerly owned by Leonard Bernstein. Mr. Lateiner said, 'The action was very loose, there was no sense of quality to the sound and it was loud and banging.' The piano was recently sold for $6,500. The second, a 30-year-old, 5-foot 2-inch grand, 'had an unusually good sound for a Baldwin that size,' Mr. Lateiner said. The piano had just been delivered to the shop and had not been reconditioned. When remodeled, it will sell for about $6,000.
At Steinway, two pianos that have been used for concertizing are about to be retired and will be available for purchase. One, a sevenfoot instrument called a 'B,' about six years old, will be sold as is for $9,000 to $10,000 as opposed to $17,000 for the same piano new. The second one is a nine-foot grand that is 11 years old and will be $17,000 or $18,000. Both, Mr. Lateiner said, are 'concert quality' and the nine-foot one is 'an exceptionally beautiful instrument.'
This was not true of three of the five others available in the used and reworked department. A 5-foot 10 1/2-inch grand in walnut, called an 'L' for large, is less than two years old and has never been sold. That explained why 'it sounds like a new piano - not worked in - it's cottony,' Mr. Lateiner said. The price is $13,500.
Another grand of about the same age and priced at $13,900 had, he commented, 'no quality.' An ebony piano of the same size at $12,100 was 'completely muffled and will probably never open up,' he remarked. The two he liked were a slightly used one, again in walnut, and a one-year-old ebony grand at $16,100 that was the best available he saw that day.
At A & C, staffed by piano makers formerly employed at Steinway, there were many more grand pianos to choose from - 55 in stock, 15 or 20 ready to play and five that Frank Martira, one of the four partner-owners, said were quality pianos. The best, according to Mr. Lateiner, is a 1900 seven-foot Steinway at $13,500 that 'has some heaviness but is completely manageable.' A 50-year-old Mason and Hamlin at $7,000 has, he commented, 'a nice tone but I don't think it will wear as well as a Steinway.' Mr. Lateiner was pleasantly surprised at 'the quality of the tone' of a 15-year-old, 6-foot 3-inch Baldwin. He also liked a 5 foot 10 inch Steinway dating to 1923 and priced at $9,500.
Samuel Camilleri, a co-founder of A & C who is now on his own, was also formerly at Steinway. He had four Steinways, including the second-best available instrument Mr. Lateiner had played that day - an ebony 1896 seven-foot design that is $14,000. Two seven-foot ebony Steinways, however, were not so successful. One, he said, which dated to 1889, 'didn't feel like a Steinway' (it is $11,000) and the other 'had a smallish base and gorgeous treble -it's crazy.' The fourth one, built in 1889, a six-foot piano at $10,000, 'has a gorgeous top and the rest is O.K.'
At Sotheby's York Avenue at 72d Street, five of the 10 pianos that will be offered in an auction next Thursday were set up in advance of the presale exhibition so that Mr. Lateiner could play them. John Turner, Sotheby's musical instrument specialist, described the five as representative of the range of quality for this sale. Not included in the selection, he said, are two of the best pianos - a Knabe dating to 1930 that may sell for as much as $35,000, and a Chickering dating to 1905 that is also expected to bring up to $35,000.
The others, he said, should be judged as furniture - all have exceptional cases, including one 7-foot-2 Steinway dating to 1910 and framed in Coromandel screens that may sell for up to $120,000. This was the best of the four -'a marvelous old instrument - everything is there and it just needs to be rebuilt.' The others, an 1885 Bechstein, an 1889 Ernst Munck and an 1860 Knabe, are 'unplayable,' he said.
The Mason Model A is the by far the most popular model of Mason and Hamlin. This is the Model that 80% of Mason buyers select. Like the Steinway L or O, it's an ideal, middle ground size.
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