Hello all,  This recent discussion of the interesting 44-note cabinet
piano on eBay had me intrigued.  I, too, originally thought that the
pump and motor was missing and that it was originally a pneumatic
player made by Auto Electric.

This instrument is described briefly and pictured quite clearly on page
383 of Bowers' "Encyclopedia", and also page 222 of "Put Another Nickel
In".  The example illustrated was in the Haning and White collection;
does anyone know who has it now?  However, something was not quite right:
the roll frame was not the same kind of unique endless frame illustrated
in the "Encyclopedia" and apparently different than a North Tonawanda
or Peerless roll frame.

Thinking a bit, the design of the upper front glass panel jogged my
memory.  I flipped through Bowers' "Encyclopedia" and, sure enough,
there it is on page 704, center left: the "Tammany Non-Pneumatic Player
Piano", sold by the Tammany Organet (sic) Co., 17 West 24th Street,
New York City, NY.

If you compare the case of this instrument with the case of the one
being sold, you will notice that they are nearly identical.  Also,
since it is advertised as "non-pneumatic", this would imply that it
was electric or mechanical in action, which corresponds with the
all-electric action in the rig for sale.

However, there are a couple or differences: the instrument in the ad
appears to have the roll frame extending up most of the case to cover
the piano action.  Either that, or they photographed it with the roll
cover door in the "up" position (assuming that the cover tilts up and
is hinged at the rear).  Also, the ad instrument quite obviously has
a drop-type coin slot, with the slot plate mounted on the upper right
part of the top front panel.  The instrument for sale, on the other
hand, has a push-pull type of coin slide, mounted on the right side of
the extended part of the cabinet, about waist high.

I do not know very much about Auto-Electric or Tammany, except to
theorize that Tammany (who made organettes) bought their pianos from
the Auto Electric Co. and built their own cases and installed their
own mechanisms.  Certainly, it would be more logical for a small or
first-time maker of coin pianos to buy the basic piano plate and action
from an established (and presumably successful at the time) maker, so
they wouldn't have to tool up and make piano plates, action brackets,
etc. only to learn that their instrument failed in the marketplace.

I wonder if John McTammany, organette innovator (and self-proclaimed
"inventor of the player piano") was related to the Tammany Organet Co.,
and thus possibly had a hand in the design of this instrument.  And
finally, I wonder if the design of this piano has any relationship with
one of the early all-electric Encore Banjos.

One last note: I know of three Auto Electric cabinet pianos: The one
illustrated in the books and mentioned above, apparently all-original
and formerly in the Haning and White collection; one converted to
A-rolls(?) and offered for sale way back in 2002 by Mr. Lloyd Thoburn
of Coin Op Warehouse
  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/Digests/200202/2002.02.09.08.html
and the third, the only one I've seen in person, also converted to
A-rolls and on public display in the Musee Mecanique on Fisherman's
Wharf in San Francisco.

I am not an expert in coin pianos, but I hope my detective work helps
someone.  I, too, hope the winner of the auction shares with us details
of the action, and also maybe keeps us informed of progress towards
restoration (hopefully!).  Mr. Tom Jansen of http://www.maesto.com/
let the auctioneer know that he can make new rolls for the instrument.
I assume that with a custom operation, it should not be too hard to
convert other 44-note rolls (Pianino, Peerless, etc.) to this format.
And, the piano comes with one dog-eared, torn up roll that might have
a few tunes salvageable on it.

Andrew Barrett