-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD --

Hello,  I have noticed the recent posting from George Kiriakidis who
is seeking barrel piano pins so as to complete a restoration project.
He may be interested to learn that I have around 8 wooden boxes of old
unused barrel piano pins, each box containing several thousand.

These pins were formerly the property and indeed came from the
workshops of the renowned Canon Algernon Wintle, of Lawshall, near
Bury St Edmunds [Suffolk] here in England.  His name will be familiar
to many collectors as he bought, sold, hired out and repaired street
and coin-operated barrel pianos and organs for a period of some forty
years until his death in 1959.

His effects were subsequently dispersed, and after passing through
several ownerships, I was fortunate to be in a position last year to
purchase a job lot of barrel pianos, player pianos and organs together
with a multitude of spare parts for barrel pianos, much of which had
come from the estate of Canon Wintle.  The barrel pins were part of 
this acquisition.

I have identified four sizes / types of pin and I am quite happy to
send a sample of each to George if he would care to supply me with his
contact details.  Hopefully he will be able to choose one of the sizes
of pin to suit his requirements.

Interestingly, part of the consignment I obtained included three
unopened Hessian cloth bags or sacks, each with its original
manufacturer's label with hand-written details thus :

  "14 lbs., 5/8 inch, headless, pointless, barrel piano pins,
   British Make"

Yours sincerely,
Paul Baker
Gosport, England

 [ Hessian cloth or burlap is a plain cloth woven from jute.
 [ More at http://www.worldjute.com/burlap.html  -- Robbie