Having just returned from 2 weeks in the Mumbai (Bombay) area, I
am afraid that I must report as I predicted, that I found nothing
encouraging.  although the boss of our division in India asked around,
no good leads were turned up.  (Everything in India gets done by
networking; there are few public 'information exchange' resources there,
and the 'e-net' is so slow that it is little used for such things.)

My first idea was to go to a music store, and get to talking with some
old-timer there; this usually works for me.  The problem is, there are no
music stores in the sense that we know them, in India.  There is only one
piano shop in the whole city, and it only sells or rents-out used instru-
ments.  The manager said that any old players that are turned up have
long-since been gutted, and no interest in rebuilding exists that he
knows of.

The reason for this situation is not that there are no new pianos in
India, but rather that pianos are listed as 'foreign luxury goods' and
subject to 100+% duty.  Anyone rich enough to buy a piano has ways (never
mind what) to overcome this, but not by publicly buying a piano at a
store.

Since the word got around that I was interested, I was approached on at
least 2 occasions by someone who whispered out of the corner of his mouth
'did I want to buy a piano?' I did not follow up this, not only to avoid
embarrassing my business associates in India by dealing under false
pretenses, but because I wanted to talk to someone who loved pianos,
not a 'contractor' (the polite term for a arranger of anything in India).

I did locate a small shop that rebuilds old Raj era pianos.  There I did
see an old player, long since gutted, being rebuilt for manual play.  It
was a Steck, but probably not our US Steck.

I judged it to be 1905-1910 era, a very Euro-style low upright
(cottage?), with a one-piece keyboard lid, rocker-and-peg capstans,
pantograph music rack, etc. 'Steck Pianola' was inlet in the cover in
mother-of-pearl, and it bore the seller's decal (seen on other instru-
ments as well) of 'Rose and Co.', presumably the 'Lyon & Healy' of
Colonial India.

From tube gaps in the keys, I assume this was a very early 65 note
inner-player with under-bed stack; it had the early vertical-folding
pedal opening cover.  Maybe some UK people can fill me in about what
this was.

When I return in the fall I will be better prepared.  Before I go, I
will put an ad in the 'Times of India' agony column asking for anyone
interested in MM to correspond.  I am told that this is the way such
things are arranged there.  I also have the name of one ethical antiques
dealer, but I did not have time to see them this time.

I use the term ethical advisedly; in a country where labor is cheap and
craftsmanship of a very high standard is easily come by, reproductions
of anything, even complex scientific instruments, colonial era fans,
telephones and other electrical gear, and horological items, are sold
everywhere.

One must be very careful indeed when shopping in India.  I will e-mail
privately my observations about the Acoustic Phonograph racket to anyone
interested.

One bright note; stopping in London on the way back, I learned that
Harrod's continues its decades-long commitment to MM.  They have mounted
an excellent store-wide promotion for Yamaha Disklavier instruments;
better than anything I have seen here.

Richard Vance