Responding to the comments about survival rates of Violanos, I would
estimate about 2,200 to 2500 have survived.  I know there is a
mathematical formula that is often used in figuring out how many antique
items have survived through time. Saying that a certain percentage of
antiques have survived may hold true in respect to ordinary objects but
in the case of Violanos you must place yourself back in time when these
music machines were considered to be worth very little. I have been in
the player business for 25 years now and I have heard countless stories
about player pianos being chopped up or taken to the dump in years past.
I believe that even the most uniformed person saw value in a self
playing violin machine and so when the day came to "get rid" of the
machine I think most all of them were saved.  In all these years I
have only heard one first hand story about a Violano being chopped up.
I would guess that a few hundred out of a possible production of four
thousand have met this fate and that a few hundred more were destroyed
in fires and floods.  My experience with reproducing grands is very
similar. I think the same percentage of reproducing grands have
survived because of the intrinsic value of grand pianos. I think very
few reproducing grands were destroyed except by acts of God. Many of
course were gutted but the grands themselves are still with us.

I think when the day came to "get rid" of the Violano the machines were
taken away by the first person on the scene or they were shoved into
an out building or down to a basement.  I found a few machines out in
the field just under these conditions. Last year an oak single was
hauled from an out building in western PA.  I found one in a basement
of the former owner of an ice cream parlor where the machine was
originally installed and I found two in back rooms of their original
location, and I bought another from a collector who had just removed
it from an out building. My experience has been that I have owned more
Violanos than common models of coin pianos (like Seeburg E's or L's).
That leads me to believe that there are a lot of them out there. I
would like to hear the opinions of other dealers based on the number
of Violanos they have owned.

Player pianos were discarded in great numbers because they were taken
for granted. In 1920 most homes had some kind of a piano. Quoting from
an article I read in one of the trade magazines about 75 percent of all
pianos being produced in the late teens were players. I've thrown out
a few television sets and thought nothing of it just because they are
common. When it came time to "get rid" of the Violano I belive most
every person tried to save them because they realized how unusual they
were.