Dear Scotty,  If these rolls are indeed for the Pianotist, they will
have a 'snap' on the leader instead of an eyelet or D-ring.  The 'snap'
attaches to the take-up spool.  The Pianotist is an entirely mechanical
action player.  It was made in both a foot-treadled and an electric
motor driven model.  To the best of my knowledge, it was available in
upright pianos only.

Not unlike some grand player actions, it's roll drive was mounted in a
drawer under the keybed.  The roll is fed across a 'tracker-bar', from
right to left, and a pressure bar holds the heavy paper/cardboard down
against what you might call 'keyframe' keys (as you would in a book
organ).  Once loaded, the drawer is pushed back under the keybed so
that the gears of the roll frame can engage with the drive assembly of
the player action.

On the electric models, when the drawer is pushed all the way in it
closes the circuit thus engaging the electric motor.  After the roll
has finished playing, the operator has to pull the drawer back out from
under the keybed to disengage the roll frame from the player action, as
there is no rewind system on this player system (there is a small crank
handle mounted on the end of the spool that the music roll is slipped
onto), the operator has to rewind the roll manually.

The way this player works is that there is a cylinder running the width
of the piano just above the piano trapwork.  The cylinder is covered
with felt and spins continuously when in operation.  Above the cylinder
is an assembly of what looks like piano abstracts with a buckskin
covered half round end at the bottom of each.  When the roll is in
place and the drawer is pushed into it's playing position, the
abstracts are lifted up and away from the felted cylinder.

As the roll begins to advance and a hole crosses the trackerbar/keyframe,
a mechanical finger pops up through the roll causing the linkage to
lower the abstract and engages it with the spinning cylinder.
Subsequently the half round end of the abstract is kicked upwards,
driving the abstract against the underside of the tail of the piano
key.

Mine was found in Long Island and is in a beautiful Hardman upright.
When I had purchased it, it had no Pianotist rolls with it (only the
core from a march roll was on the roll frame).  The previous owners had
tried to play an old 88-note QRS roll on it, with obviously disastrous
results (shredded).  Without any knowledge as to it's operation, they
had removed the retaining hook from the pressure bar assembly (it's
still missing).

I presently have a sum total of two rolls, one was purchased from
a dealer in Connecticut some years ago.  While the other was recently
found on eBay (listed as a rare 'leather' roll).  The picture of it on
eBay intrigued me, as when I received the roll, it was mounted on the
roller from the spoolframe, crank and all!

Maybe one day I will get it up and running (the motor is in need of
a rebuild, as well as a few of the abstracts).  I hope this has
enlightened you a little,

Sincerely,
Dale F. Rowe
Bronx, New York, USA