Ampico Fischer Art Case

This piano is available for sale.  This piano was purchased used in Arizona in 1946.  After the Second World War new pianos could not be bought.  During the war all the piano factories were taken over by our government and used to supply the war.  It took some time to get back to a consumer economy at war's end.  This customer bought this piano after the dealer had painted it antique white.  This was a great color for the Florida room decor, but the white paint covered gold leaf on all the carved elements. The legs must have had damage because he cut the end leaves off two of the legs.  This piece is where the large hole for the leg bolt must go, some of them were damaged, so he just removed the remaining pieces as you can see on these pictures.

There were other pieces that were also falling off and some that had fallen off by the time we got the piano.  The curved tail leg still had those leaves that the other two were missing, since the bolt hole went through a more substantial piece of carved wood.  As you may see at the upper right hand corner of the right photo below, one of them was broken off but present when we got the instrument.

Dale, our late woodworker, repaired the legs and carved the missing leaf elements using the ones on the tail leg as pattern.  All the other missing carvings were made and applied to the legs.

In the process the legs were stained and prepped for new finish.

The Pedal lyre below did not need much repair but it is a lovely carved piece below.

The staining and finishing was done.  We then did gold leafing and antiqued down the leaf as was done originally.  Those photos will appear here soon.