23/03/2019
During the Victorian era, pianos and organs were shipped by the only means available -Ship, freight train, riverboat, horse & buggy and wagons.
Stories of the family piano being shipped over mountains by wagon or down a river by boat or hauled across the desert by horse & buggy.
Imagine the elements that these pianos were subject to! These instruments would often spend months on end in the heat and cold being moved at a snails pace from one destination to another before finally reaching their new homes. Often pianos traveled hundreds of miles by these crude means of transportation, only to arrive safe and sound, and in reasonable tune!
That alone is a testament to the quality and durability of these antique instruments.
There are stories of old-timers in the USA who would take a wagon with a piano loaded on the back and venture out into the countryside, only to pretend to have a wheel or axle "about to break" in front of a rural farmhouse. As a favor, the farmer's family would allow the salesman to leave his piano in the home for safe-keeping while the salesmen took the wagon for repair - often over a period of several days. More often than not, the salesman would return to find that the farmer's daughters had taken a liking to the piano while he was gone! Imagine how many pianos were sold this way, all unbeknownst to the farmer and his wife!
By the 'teens and 'twenties, pianos were still being shipped from major industrial areas by train, but the introduction of the automobile made home delivery a much easier task. Early trucks were equipped with special piano lifting mechanisms that would allow one man to load a piano at the factory, transport it to the suburbs and countryside, and unload it in the yard to demonstrate to a potential buying customer.
Today, piano moving is somewhat of a science, if not an art to itself. There are a handful of specialized freight companies that move nothing but pianos & organs across countries and internationally. These companies have all the necessary experience, equipment, and knowledge necessary to make sure that pianos are safely moved from the factory to the store and to your home without damage or difficulty. It is amazing how easy they can make it look!
Raymond Day-Hakker, Golden Era Piano Museum.
With special thanks to the Antique Piano Shop USA, for "The easy lifter piano loader" photos.
