This is an antique grand piano (c. 1880s, manufactured by George Steck & Co) that lives in a piano shop near my university campus. I saw it for the first time when I first visited the shop last summer.
According to the shop's owner, it was rebuilt (meaning its parts, such as hammers and strings, were replaced and its case was refinished) about a decade ago, and now needs a new owner.
This piano must have once been beautiful and owned by a proud and wealthy owner when it was new; it still has intricate cabriole legs and its rosewood veneer still echoes elegance. But now, it has a scratched, poorly-cared, and sun-bleached cabinet, and because it was manufactured by a piano company that is not so widely recognized, it is sadly not being restored to its potential and sold as is.
I feel moved in some way when I see old artifacts and antiques, becoming excited enough to buy them and surprised by their form and design. The artifacts, if well-cared, do not age quickly or change like humans, and their conspicuously incongruent and inherent cultural atmosphere and style makes them look... abandoned.
Anonymous people of the past, who created the piano, left it to the world and simply disappeared. Is this not the future waiting for so many of us...? Anonymity?
Today I saw this piano again, still without an owner, and I left wondering about its ultimate fate.
A tragic old piano.
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