Pianotech

To the question of value: I would say that sadly, there is no monetary value in these rare and beautiful examples of engineering and innovation in pianos.  There s probably not even any "collectables" value. There are piano collectors, but they are mostly looking for 150+ year old premium brands in art cases.

I am doing some research with the goal of posting a website about Ed. Westermayer, a German piano innovator from who 1860 - 1890 developed and patented a few really interesting - and well functioning - piano actions.
https://westermayer-pianos.com/
In principle not unlike what Hickman was doing - inventing a better mouse trap. A fair number of those pianos are out there (I own one from 1872) and their value can probably be measured in dozens of dollars, maybe hundreds.  Certainly not thousands of dollars. I guess you have to be a real geek to get your jollies from bizarre technical inventions in pianos. Thank goodness we are not entirely alone in that, but there is not enough general interest to create a desire or a market which would drive up a price for these unique pieces. And so, there are probably some amazing instruments going to the dump as we speak.

To the question of value: I would say that sadly, there is no monetary value in these rare and beautiful examples of engineering and innovation in pianos.  There s probably not even any "collectables" value. There are piano collectors, but they are mostly looking for 150+ year old premium brands in art cases.

I am doing some research with the goal of posting a website about Ed. Westermayer, a German piano innovator from who 1860 - 1890 developed and patented a few really interesting - and well functioning - piano actions.
https://westermayer-pianos.com/
In principle not unlike what Hickman was doing - inventing a better mouse trap. A fair number of those pianos are out there (I own one from 1872) and their value can probably be measured in dozens of dollars, maybe hundreds.  Certainly not thousands of dollars. I guess you have to be a real geek to get your jollies from bizarre technical inventions in pianos. Thank goodness we are not entirely alone in that, but there is not enough general interest to create a desire or a market which would drive up a price for these unique pieces. And so, there are probably some amazing instruments going to the dump as we speak.

To the question of value: I would say that sadly, there is no monetary value in these rare and beautiful examples of engineering and innovation in pianos.  There s probably not even any "collectables" value. There are piano collectors, but they are mostly looking for 150+ year old premium brands in art cases.

I am doing some research with the goal of posting a website about Ed. Westermayer, a German piano innovator from who 1860 - 1890 developed and patented a few really interesting - and well functioning - piano actions.
https://westermayer-pianos.com/
In principle not unlike what Hickman was doing - inventing a better mouse trap. A fair number of those pianos are out there (I own one from 1872) and their value can probably be measured in dozens of dollars, maybe hundreds.  Certainly not thousands of dollars. I guess you have to be a real geek to get your jollies from bizarre technical inventions in pianos. Thank goodness we are not entirely alone in that, but there is not enough general interest to create a desire or a market which would drive up a price for these unique pieces. And so, there are probably some amazing instruments going to the dump as we speak.