Responding to the query in the 090726 MMD.

According to David Wainwright's book "The Piano Makers", Crane & Sons
pianos, in the 1920s anyway, were made by Squire & Longson, Medlar
Street, Camberwell, in London.  It seems likely they would be the maker
of the piano part of a Crane player, although Crane also contracted
from other makers over the years.

Squire & Longson called their own pianos "Cremona," and also made
pianos under contract for a number of dealers, including the Bluethner-
clone pianos sold under the Welmar name by Bluethner's UK agents,
Whelpdale & Maxwell.  They also made pianos for Rushworth & Draper, and
for Barnes of London.  Barnes sold a fair number of player pianos under
their Eastonola brand, an odd design with the pneumatics playing
downwards from the front, with levers underneath the stack to transfer
the movement to the piano action.  I wonder whether the Crane players
were related?

The Squire & Longson factory burned down in 1929, and although it was
rebuilt, the firm was bought out by Kemble in 1933.  Two other
factories arose from this, both in 1933: Welmar (Whelpdale, Maxwell &
Codd by that point) started to make their own pianos, and there was the
founding of Knight pianos, who made the fine pianos used by many
British schools.

Julian Dyer