A Tribute to our Upright Piano

It seems that our upright piano will not be with us much longer. It will have to be put in the container in about a week, then, once it has been shipped to Germany along with our other belongings, the piano will be transferred to my uncle's care. A wise course of action, by all means, since our apartment in Berlin will not be of vast proportions.

Here is a photo of the piano:


And here are various stamps that are to be found under the piano's lid:


"GEWERBL & LANDWIRTHSCHAFTL AUSSTELLUNG MANNHEIM 1880":


"WILLEM III KONING DER NEDERLANDEN HOOGE BESCHERMHEER VAN DE TENTOONSTELLING":


"EN UITVOERHANDEL TENTOONSTELLING AMSTERDAM 1883":


"FRIEDRICH GROSHERZOG VON BADEN":



Interesting, eh? I would translate the words in the stamps, but I don't know some of the Dutch words. What I do know is that the piano was built in Heilbronn at the turn of the century (between 1891 and 1905). During the last ten years or so, it has been in our little house, where it has been played almost every day. The upright piano will certainly be missed, but, on the bright side, we will still have my great aunt's grand piano, which is a lovely instrument in its own right.

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Note: All of the above images are hosted by flickr and edited using Adobe Photoshop.