Bechstein Model V, Made in Germany C1892.
We don’t usually risk offering pianos this old as they were designed and constructed for very different types of homes to the ones we all want to live in today. Our modern, warm dry double glazed environments are the enemy of this era of instrument as the old animal glues dry out and lose their strength, potentially causing a raft of expensive problems. This lovely Bechstein is 130 years old but has spent at least the last 60 in a church where it has been spared the usual degradation seen in so many older pianos. It has lived in a perfect environment where the heating was minimal, it was dry but not too dry and the atmosphere was well ventilated (draughty!), also due to lack of use the keyboard had ceased up, preventing it from being used and inadvertently preserving the felts even better. We have rejuvenated it to a good working condition having freed up all the keys so that it plays nicely again but it isn’t a restored instrument, we have kept it as original as possible. When viewed close up and judged against a modern instrument it has plenty of cosmetic blemishes and technical imperfections, but it still has so much more to give and must not be written off just because it isn’t 100% perfect! I would be very reluctant to let this one go unless going to a home similar to the old draughty church that preserved it so well, otherwise it would degrade very quickly. No reasonable offer would be refused if a suitable home was being offered.
