I wondered why there was old Gold touch-up around the cast iron nameplate. I removed it, and it appears that "Peerless Piano Player Co. F. Englehardt and Sons, Propr's" did sell whole pianos to others. As mentioned in Bower's Encyclopedia, Engelhardt is miss-spelled. Below, one photo shows a casting mark in the lower right of the main plate -- it's like BCL or BGL upside down. You can also see the large plugged holes so this piano had the roll mechanism inside rather than on its backside. The serial number is 60248.

There are no pneumatics or mechanism left. The keys are in nice shape and have wood tabs (extensions) added to their back ends, so the stack was below the keyboard. The large oak board that replaced the art glass was installed many years ago by a San Francisco piano dealer (it has a decal on its back). Photos tell the story. The piano was covered in naugahyde when I found it.

This is a piece of history that nobody much cares about. The piano is in Alameda, CA (20 minutes from San Francisco) and can be hauled away for $500. I say $500 as I have another piano that I could use the Berry-Wood iron nameplate, fallboard with decal, and lower doors on. I would then scrap the remainder.

Part 2 added Oct. 27, 2010 -- Answers to questions received. Additional photos near the bottom of this page.

1) The piano action and cast-iron frame (plate) were both manufactured by Engelhardt (Peerless) so I strongly expect that Berry-Wood bought a complete piano from them. This belief is reinforced by the grinding off of the Peerless name after the frame was painted. Had BW bought raw parts, they would have ground that name off before painting the frame.

2) The large oak filler panel where the original art glass would have been was procured from White Bros. of San Francisco. It is so marked on its back -- photo below. So this piano was likely de-nickelodeon'd in the San Francisco bay area. The White Bros. Mill is still in business, see Wybro. Here's an ad from a 1915 national trade journal.

3)  Dating: Reading left to right, the Exposition medals on the hammer rail are below (I added the cities and dates):

• Jamestown Tercentennial (Norfolk, VA 1907)
• Louisiana Purchase (St. Louis, MO 1904)
• Pan-American (Buffalo, NY 1901)
• Lewis & Clark Centennial (Portland, OR 1905)

These are Engelhardt expos, not BW.

4) The front of the piano has rounded corners. The last photo shows its legs. The many tack holes are from the naughahyde I removed. They shouldn't be that hard to fill and touch-up retaining the original finish. It is in nice shape having been covered up for the last 50 years or so.

5) Several large holes in the sound board are nicely plugged with what appear to be original wooden plugs. The back doesn't have empty screw holes. So I believe that this piano had all of its nickelodeon parts inside the case -- none on its back. 

It would be a shame to bust this thing up. Doesn't anyone want it?