Jim Edwards was asking whether the Boesendorfer used in a TV programme
on Rachmaninoff was a proper Ampico.  The brief answer is yes, as Dan
Wilson said yesterday.

Until recently I couldn't have given you much more information than
this.  However, when loaned a pile of papers recently, there was quite
a bit of English Ampico stuff.  I found it interesting, and hopefully
other MMDers will as well.

From some time in the mid 1920s, the Sir Herbert Marshall piano company
took on the Ampico agency, trading as Ampico Ltd.  They offered a
number of English pianos, a carefully-selected range of European
pianos, and the normal American ones as well.

You could get the following makes:

  English: Broadwood, Chappell, Collard & Collard, Challen, Hopkinson,
    Marshall & Rose, Rogers.
  French: Erard.
  German: Grotrian-Steinweg.
  Austrian: Boesendorfer.
  American: Chickering, Mason & Hamlin, Knabe, Marshall & Wendell.

There was also an unnamed Marque-Ampico model.

Marshalls made the Marshall & Rose pianos themselves (and they are
very good indeed).  I don't think there was any relationship with the
Marshall of Marshall & Wendell.  Marshalls were also long-time UK
agents for the Angelus system, and in parallel with their Ampico agency
were also offering the Artrio-Angelus -- which is very rare in the UK.
I have been told that some of their Ampico installations have Angelus
stacks!

The company kept its agency running for a long time, and the family
still own the rights to the Ampico name here.  Their shop in Kensington
was selling new Ampico rolls in the 1950s (the guy who lent me the
papers was buying them at that time), and to this day the family use
the Ampico name -- for their double glazing business in Bournemouth.
They even have a grand piano in their phone book listing!

I have a price list from 1 October 1927 that makes interesting reading.
All prices are in guineas (21 shillings, about $4 at the time) -- the
relative prices are the thing to look at.  They are all for payment by
installment -- a discount of some 15-25% was offered for cash,
depending on model.  For comparison, a Steinway model O Duo-Art grand
was 1050 guineas around the same time, and the equivalent Weber 850
guineas.

Uprights
--------
Marque Ampico (foot)            210 guineas (178 guineas for cash)
Marque Ampico (electric/foot)   265
Marshall & Wendell              265
Hopkinson (miniature)           273
Challen                         300
Rogers                          340
Chappell                        350
Collard & Collard               350
Broadwood                       360
Marshall & Rose                 420

Grands
------
Challen                         465
Hopkinson                       500
Marshall & Wendell              530
Rogers                          560
Chappell                        620
Collard & Collard               620
Broadwood                       700
Marshall & Rose                 735
Chickering (style 52)           735
Knabe (style H-GE)              735
Grotrian-Steinweg               795
Bosendorfer                     795
Erard                           795
Knabe (style A-GE)              825
Chickering (style 59)           900
Mason & Hamlin                  935

Julian Dyer