It is my understanding that the term "Stenciled" for pianos meant that
a piano was made by a piano manufacturer and the name of the dealer or
distributor placing the order was allowed to have their name stenciled
onto the piano.

In the Jackson, Michigan, area Mahar Bros. music company was a music
dealer that sold lots of Mahar Bros. pianos with their name stenciled
on the front, as well as their name being cast into the plate itself.

In case you're wondering, it appears that all Mahar Bros. pianos were
actually made by the M. Schulz of Chicago, IL which made a number of
different "Stencil" pianos for nearly anybody that wanted them and was
in the trade.

In the case of a major company having several lines of pianos, I
would not consider them to be "Stencil" pianos.  The use of the term
"Stencil" was accurately applied to those pianos made for someone
who had their own stencil put on it.  It seemed to convey the idea
to people that a music dealer might be "bigger" than they really were
and it may have made them seem more important, a selling ploy.

The same technique is sometimes applied to consumer goods to this very
day, especially, to my knowledge, in the field of electronics items.
In fact, there have been music roll vendors who have their name sten-
ciled on "their" product when in fact they don't make the product
themselves.

As they say, there's nothing new under the sun.

Hal Davis