I'd be surprised if an American Steck was made for the British market,
as has been suggested.  Up to 1921, Steck pianos sold in the UK are
from the Gotha factory (ex Ernst Munck) in Germany, and after 1921
they were made in the Hayes factory in London.  American-made Aeolian
instruments you see here are either early demonstrators shipped for
dealers' use or latter-day imports, other than some American Steinway
Duo-Art grands.  Imports stand out -- they have decals, while anything
European-made has inlaid names set into the fall.

Rex Lawson's article, "Towards a history of the Aeolian Company", some
years back in the Pianola Institute journal, identified how Aeolian
divided the world into sales areas: London supplied Europe and the
British Empire, America the rest of the world.  Therefore, an export
model Steck would most likely be heading to somewhere like South
America which (as we've recently seen) was quite a big market.

I've seen a few documents sent to dealers around the world that show
how the export trade worked: makers would build pretty well what the
buyer wanted.  However, Aeolian tended to have their own dealerships
and managed to create all these variations all by themselves!

I've encountered in Australia an English-built Weber Pianola with
American works, complete with Temponamic knob -- on a pedal instrument.
It must have been built to the local salesroom's specification.

Julian Dyer