Antique Piano Value Guides
It is practically impossible to determine the piano value without seeing and checking it. Therefore, these prices can give you only a clue what to expect.
Remember that you always need to add at least 10% to 50% to the piano owners price if you decide to purchase it from a dealer. As expected, numerous things determine antique piano price, including:
Looking For A Baby Grand Piano
. Up to 15 cash back The piano dates back to a build year of 1924 based on the serial number records for the Ivers and Pond company. 1915 Ivers Pond Baby Grand Piano for sale. 1904 IVERS POND BABY GRAND PIANO.
Great as is or 10x the value with a restoration. All groups and messages. Ivers and pond baby grand piano value Written By lillikownacki85910 Friday June 3.
Colonial Style Ivers Pond Baby Grand Piano Colonial Style Baby Grand Pianos Piano Grand. Your pianos age is one of the most significant factors in determining your pianos Value. As well as Aeolian Corporation.
I have an Ivers. Up to 15 cash back The Serial number. Number of keys 88.
Ivers Pond serial numbers extend until 1983 and additional serial numbers can be found under Winter Co. This beautiful piano was built by The Ivers Pond Piano Company in 1886 a time when American manufacturers were producing more square pianos than uprights and grand pianos combined. She passed away in 1982.
Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum 1913 52 Ivers and Pond baby grand. Ivers and Pond is known for its Uprights more than its. Mass Ivers Pond Piano Company.
Idealized Value Minus the Cost of Restoration. This is the difference between the cost of a rebuilt piano and the cost to restore the unrebuilt one to like-new condition. Knabe Baby Grand Piano Previous Next.
5 Ivers and Pond from 1964. July 22 2009 122325 AM. The Serial number is I believe that indicates it was built between 1910 and 1915.
What Customers Are Saying:
Wonderful service, prompt, efficient, and accurate. Couldn’t have asked for more. I cannot thank you enough for your help.
Mary C.Freshfield, Liverpool, UK
This expert is wonderful. They truly know what they are talking about, and they actually care about you. They really helped put my nerves at ease. Thank you so much!!!!
AlexLos Angeles, CA
Thank you for all your help. It is nice to know that this service is here for people like myself, who need answers fast and are not sure who to consult.
GPHesperia, CA
I couldn’t be more satisfied! This is the site I will always come to when I need a second opinion.
JustinKernersville, NC
Just let me say that this encounter has been entirely professional and most helpful. I liked that I could ask additional questions and get answered in a very short turn around.
EstherWoodstock, NY
Thank you so much for taking your time and knowledge to support my concerns. Not only did you answer my questions, you even took it a step further with replying with more pertinent information I needed to know.
RobinElkton, Maryland
He answered my question promptly and gave me accurate, detailed information. If all of your experts are half as good, you have a great thing going here.
DianeDallas, TX
Don’t Miss: Free Sheet Music For Piano Beginners
Keyboard Range And Color
You can be pretty sure that your piano is an antique if it has the lowest note higher than the lowest A on modern instruments. Plus, most old models have fewer than 85 keys.
Particular rarities are pieces with reversed colors. Pianos with light-colored accidentals and dark naturals were standard in keyboards produced in the 18th century.
Where To Find Piano Restorers

There’re many people and companies that specialize in piano restorations, some of which may even be in your area. Restoration is not an inexpensive route and you should understand what can and cannot be accomplished before you get the restoration done, and if you’re ever in doubt about what’s being suggested, inquire with another professional to get a second opinion.
- Antique Piano Shop – A premiere online company that works to restore your antique pianos to a working, preserved condition.
- Shaffer Piano – Shaffer Piano offers multiple services for antique pianos, from refinishing to restoring to full-on rebuilding them.
Also Check: Clocks Coldplay Piano Sheet Music
How Can You Tell How Old A Piano Is
In addition to various factory locations, many piano manufacturers also printed serial numbers on their instruments. Aside from serial numbers, many pianos also have other numbers, such as part numbers or surnames. It is common to find pianos with a serial number of 4, 5, or 6 digits, to indicate their age.
How To Incorporate An Antique Piano Into Your Home
Of course, you may just want the look of a beautiful piano and antique piano bench in your parlor. There’s nothing wrong with buying a beautiful antique piano with display in mind.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Match your style – Look for pianos that complement the design aesthetics of your home for instance, minimalist homes might prefer the stylings of a simpler design.
- Mix textures and colors together – In Victorian homes, pianos were often draped with shawls to keep the dust off, and piano babies–figurines that looked like children–were used to hold these shawls in place. Throw a shawl, table runner, or similar textile over the top of your vertical pianos for some color.
- Add intimate lighting – Since there were often candelabras or oil lamps atop these piano to light their playing after dark, you can add imitation or authentic lamps and lights to go with the aesthetic.
- Display old sheet music – Thankfully, old sheet music isn’t usually expensive and can add a lived-in quality to your decorative antique piano. You can also go a step further and add a sheet music cabinet nearby to bring authenticity to your historic room.
Don’t Miss: Autumn Leaves Piano Sheet Music
Average Antique Piano Prices
$2,000 to $6,500 $22,000 to $28,000
Keep in mind that this instrument was invented in the early 18th century. In other words, the earliest antique piano you could find was about three centuries old.
Unfortunately, age alone wont make this instrument highly valuable. Besides rare, historically important pianos built during WWII, the most pricey ones were those made in the 1920s and earlier.
The most appreciated antique pianos available on the current market were manufactured in the 19th century. Since they come in numerous styles and types, you can quickly pick out the one you like the best.
Tips For Selling Your Piano
There are two keys to ensuring that your piano sells: creating a sales presentation to prospective buyers, and properly preparing your piano for sale. If your piano has outlasted its manufacturer, you can research the brands history online. Present this information, along with the history of your particular instrument and your experience of it, in narrative that presents the facts about your piano with persuasive context. You can use the points below to help you form answers to the questions potential buyers will ask.
- Make: The brand name is found on the fallboard and/or on the cast-iron plate.
- Model: The model designation or number is usually found just inside the lid or on the back of an upright piano, and usually under the music desk of a grand.
- Serial number and age:
- Relative quality of brand and model: See earlier discussion.
- Cosmetic condition: Look the piano over closely with a flashlight and note any visible wear or damage.
- Performance condition: If you play, how would you describe your pianos performance to a shopper? If you dont play, ask your piano technician how he or she would describe it.
- When was it last tuned?
- Why are you selling the piano?
Heres a checklist of what to do to prepare your piano for sale:
Also Check: Alesis 88 Key Digital Piano
Antique Piano Values: Guide To Determining Their Worth
With a B.S. in Public History, Megan is fascinated by vintage & antique items. She is dedicated to preserving history and shares her knowledge through LoveToKnow’s antiques channel.
Learn about our Editorial Policy.
Antique piano values vary widely according to many different criteria, from the specific model to the period that it was designed in. Given the sheer volume of pianos that have been manufactured over the past few hundred years, it’s nigh impossible to find a fully comprehensive antique piano value guide to ensure that you’re either listing or purchasing your pianos at fair price. Yet, using a few general guidelines, you should be able to feel confident talking with a potential buyer or insurance representative about your beloved heirloom.
What Is My Piano Worth
There was once a piano in almost every home in America, and that means that there are a lot of older pianos floating around in every different condition. Determining the value of your piano is important for deciding if it is worth restoring, using as a trade-in towards a newer piano, or if your money would be better spent elsewhere. Do you have a priceless antique or just a piano-shaped object? Ted & Chris discuss and help you answer the question…What’s My Piano Worth?
Can My Piano Be Sold?
To determine if your piano can be sold, there are some basic things to ponder: overall appearance, brand, and age/condition.
Overall Appearance: People who buy decent-quality pianos of higher value usually have well-decorated environments for them to be placed. This can mean that, in a buyers market, even if a piano plays extremely well, it may not be sellable at any price if it doesn’t look as good as it plays.
Age/Condition: Many piano owners mistakenly believe that pianos made over 100 years ago are valued as antiques. As a rule: “They arent,” with the occasional exceptions of instruments with unusually decorated cases in fine condition and even these can have difficulty finding a home due to their extreme wight and size. Most pianos are made with a life expectancy of 40 to 60 years, and, contrary to popular belief, don’t get better with age.
Pianos that do not sell well due to age include:
You can find out you piano’s age or Sell Your Piano HERE
Recommended Reading: Play Fur Elise On Piano
Are Ivers And Pond Pianos Good
Whenever we shop with our shop, we always offer Ivers and Pond pianos for sale. There is nothing better than this style of music. Compared to Steinway & Sons, Baldwin, and Mason & Hamlin, this was a similar company. This is certainly one of the most exquisite sets of pianos around, both in terms of exotic wood used and in terms of internal mechanisms that are world class.
Which Type Of Piano Do You Have

Another significant factor that can affect an antique piano’s value is the type and brand of instrument that it is. Generally. the larger the size of piano, the more expensive its value’s going to be. For instance, a grand piano is worth far more than a keyboard brand new, and the same can be said for their antique counterparts.
Antique pianos are divided into a few common size categories, including:
Recommended Reading: Carol Of The Bells Piano Easy
Is Ivers And Pond A Good Piano Brand
A piano of the Ivers and Pond variety is always appreciated at our shop. When these instruments are not bad sounding, they are often good. The company was similar to those of Steinway & Sons, Baldwin & Mason & Hamlin. Exotic wood and a strong, efficient internal mechanism make these pianos some of the finest in the world.
Antique Piano Prices Chart
40+ years | $500 to $1,500+ |
A high-end upright pianos price range is from $10,000 to $25,000, while you need to set aside about $3,000 to $6,000 for an average model.
On the other hand, a grand piano of the lowest grade will cost approximately $7,000 to $30,000. Antique grand piano models, such as Steinway, Yamaha, and Bosendorfer, typically reach $65,000 to an astonishing $195,000.
You May Like: I Can Show You The World Piano
Restoring Ivers & Pond Uprights
The Ivers & Pond company of Boston was one of the piano industrys greatest companies, in one of Americas greatest piano building cities . Ivers & Ponds specialty, in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century, was their upright piano, which was one of the greatest uprights ever built, surpassing, in my opinion, even the Steinway upright. Today, with large uprights not as popular on the market as they used to be, I restore relatively few old uprights, but I still keep my eyes out for a good Ivers and Pond specimen for rebuilding. The following photos document several I& Ps I have rebuilt over the years.
The serial number of most old uprights is generally in a little window somewhere near the top of the iron plate. This is how we can determine when a piano was built.
Some significant cracks in the lower left corner of the soundboard. On a grand piano, these would be shimmed when the plate is removed. On an upright, soundboard repairs are generally made in other ways.
These rusty, tarnished 100-year-old strings will be replaced with beautiful new ones.
These old rusty tuning pins will also be replaced.
Removal of old strings in progress.
All old strings and tuning pins removed.
In uprights, the repainting of the plate, as well as soundboard and restringing work, are done with the piano on its back, on a piano tilting truck
Another view of the piano on a tilting truck, ready for surgery.
Piano all masked and ready to spray.
Applying stain with a foam pad.
Ivers And Pond 5’8 Grand
In “The Piano Book” by Larry Fine, he lists 32 piano makers from pre 1930 whos instruments are desireable to rebuild. Maybe it’s just coincidence but Ivers and Pond is listed 4th after Steinway, Knabe, and Bosendorfer. In my experience Ivers and Pond is a high quality maker comparable to any American piano maker in the early 20th century with a thick hardwood maple inner rim and heavy support beams making for a solid foundation.
I have replaced the soundboard and bridges with my own custom design to obtain a fuller sound with a smoother transition across the tenor/bass break. I added a transition bridge with seven wound bichord unisons to replace the lowest 7 trichord unisons based on calculations of inharmonicity, loudness and tension, I also shortened the bass string speaking lengths in order to eliminate the dreaded apron for a more efficient direct connection to the soundboard, move the bass bridge closer to the center of the soundboard and lengthen the back string lengths behind the bridge to allow for freer bridge movement coupled with a cutoff bar to help control resonance and increase efficiency of the soundboard. The result is more resonance and clarity in the low end and a hardly noticeable bass break. This easily compares to any Steinway M I’ve heard.
The case is Mahogany with clear acrylic laquer hand rubbed to a high luster satin sheen. There is also a matching mahogany bench.
Price: SOLD
Recommended Reading: Happy Birthday To You Piano Sheet Music
What Determines Antique Piano Values
Antique pianos are pianos that’re at least a hundred years old, and, like antique books, they’re not worth a lot of money just because of their age. In actuality, these old instruments may be worth very little at all, depending on their brand and condition. This is because pianos, like most instruments, are at their most worthwhile when they’re fully functional. Yet, with antique pianos, each of the parts has been submitted to wear over the course of its long life. This means that each of the many parts may need specialized restoration to put the piano back in working order. That kind of work can cost the owner a lot of money and in turn mean that there isn’t much value in selling it in the first place.
Restoring and retuning a piano can easily cost $2,500 or more. If you want an antique piano as a showpiece in your vintage home, then it’s totally fine to get one that hasn’t been restored or refinished in any way. However, if you are looking for a piano that can be used for a serious pianist, you will probably want to put your money into a new piano or one that’s gone through a rigorous restoration process..
Determining Value Of Your Piano
The fair market value is the price a well informed buyer and seller are likely to agree on, where both parties are private, noncommercial entities , and neither is under a compulsion to buy or sell.
Although, today, researching the reasonable price range in which a particular piano should sell is pretty easy though a search engine, it can still be difficult, and will rarely give you a definitive price that you can use with great certainty. Unlike real estate or cars, piano sales are not regulated, and there is no major service that tracks the actual sale prices of used pianos. Even if there were, pianos can vary so much in age and condition that finding one or more instruments that are exact matches to yours would be unlikely.
The FMV is best determined by using several sources including the classified sites like Facebook Marketplace and craigslist on which youll probably end up listing your piano. Alamo Music can help you Find The Fair Market Value Of Your Piano HERE. We can provide a solid estimate of FMV by by our experts, customized to your situation, on what you can expect to get for your piano. The piano technician who has been servicing your piano, or another technician, may also be able to provide a value. However, many technicians do not keep up with changes in the used-piano market.
Read Also: Chords That Sound Good Together Piano