PIANOHOF · KNOWLEDGE & GUIDANCE

Piano Atlas & Serial Number Lookup

How old is your upright or grand piano? The Piano Atlas combines dating by serial number with a directory of historical makers and their company histories.

Piano companies & brands: 5,506
Component & accessory makers: 393
Serial number data · recorded years: 1775–2026

Find the brand. Narrow down the age.

Start with a few letters. Add the serial number when you have found it.

Brand or company name

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Dating relies on the instrument’s factory serial number. Numbers on the action or keyboard, and dates on award medallions, may refer to something else.

Where can I find the serial number on my upright or grand piano?

On an upright, start beneath the top lid: the number is often on the inside or top edge of a side panel. On a grand, it is often on the iron plate near the tuning pins. The markers show typical locations across different designs.

Piano Atlas – historic upright and grand pianos, serial numbers, year of manufacture and piano makers

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Makers by country, place and periodShow filtersHide filters

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Foundation or earliest record

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Places recorded for each company, including historical names. They do not establish where an individual instrument was made.

Foundations & earliest records

Erster erfasster Nachweis

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Der erste Nachweis ist nicht immer das Gründungsjahr. Häufige Belegjahre können Spitzen bilden.

Pro Firma zählt das früheste erfasste Jahr aus Geschichte oder Seriennummerndaten. Jede Firma zählt einmal.

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Piano serial numbers and age: differences between brands

Yamaha: letters identify the factory

A J before a Yamaha serial number indicates Jakarta, H Hangzhou and YT Taoyuan. T denotes Thomaston and U South Haven in the USA. These factories have their own number ranges, so the digits alone are not enough to date instruments with these prefixes.

Kawai: prefixes for US and Indonesian production

An A before a Kawai serial number identifies US production; an F identifies instruments made in Indonesia.

C. Bechstein: serial or internal production number?

The serial number is usually on the iron plate near the tuning pins. Early Bechstein grands may have it on the soundboard beneath the company logo. Other numbers, including those further back on the soundboard, may be internal production numbers rather than the instrument’s serial number.

Steinway & Sons: check the pinblock too

On a Steinway upright, the serial number may be on top of the pinblock above the iron plate. On a grand, it is on the plate between the tuning pins, above the keyboard.

Historical piano brands: clues in names and places

Schimmel: Leipzig, Braunschweig and the Mini Royal

Wilhelm Schimmel founded his workshop near Leipzig in 1885. Upright piano production moved to Braunschweig in 1929, while grand piano production initially remained in Leipzig. In Braunschweig, Arno Schimmel developed the compact Mini Royal upright, followed by further small piano designs in the 1930s.

August Förster: Löbau or Georgswalde

August Förster began making pianos in Löbau in 1859 and opened a branch factory in Georgswalde in 1900. After the Second World War, instruments were also made under this name in Czechoslovakia.

Feurich and Euterpe: Leipzig and Langlau

Feurich was established in Leipzig in 1851. Following expropriation, production continued in Langlau in cooperation with Euterpe.

Grotrian-Steinweg and Steinway & Sons are different makers

Historical Grotrian instruments may carry names such as C. F. Th. Steinweg Nachf. or Steinweg Nachf., Grotrian, Braunschweig. The name Grotrian-Steinweg came later. Despite the similar wording, these are not Steinway & Sons instruments, and the respective serial numbers must not be confused.

Schiedmayer: two factories in Stuttgart

Schiedmayer & Söhne and J. & P. Schiedmayer were separate Stuttgart firms. J. & P. was later called Schiedmayer Pianofortefabrik.

Seiler: Liegnitz and Kitzingen

Seiler was founded in Liegnitz in 1849. After the war, production restarted in Denmark and then in Kitzingen from 1961.

C. A. Pfeiffer: formerly J. A. Pfeiffer

The factory founded in 1862 was initially called J. A. Pfeiffer. It was renamed Carl A. Pfeiffer in 1912. Both names belong to the history of the same Stuttgart maker, so an older inscription need not indicate a different piano brand.

PETROF: the opus number

PETROF also calls an instrument’s identifying number its opus number. The manufacturer uses this term when offering information about PETROF, Weinbach, Rösler and Scholze uprights and grands. It refers to the individual instrument number.

Blüthner: Aliquot describes the stringing

The extra fourth string in the high treble of many Blüthner grands belongs to the Aliquot system. Rather than being struck by the hammer, it vibrates sympathetically.

Piano age, condition and value

Age tells you little about how well a piano plays today. Tuning stability, soundboard, pinblock, action and previous repairs need to be assessed on the instrument itself. PIANOHOF offers piano condition assessments in Berlin and the surrounding area and advice on piano repair and restoration. A targeted repair can also make sense for an older instrument.

Help expand the database

Do you have serial number lists, company documents or your own records? Send us the brand name and a link or a short description of the material.

We review submissions before adding information to the database.

Questions & answers

How old is my piano?

Dated factory serial numbers provide clues to when a piano was made. A number between known dated examples can suggest an approximate year or period. The company’s founding year, by contrast, does not give the age of the individual instrument.

Here, factory number and serial number refer to the instrument’s identifying number. Additional numbers on the action, keyboard or case parts may serve other purposes. Letters and leading zeros can be part of the serial number.

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Where can I find the serial number on my upright or grand piano?

Upright: Under the top lid – on the inner sides of the case or their top edges; also on the iron frame or the wooden soundboard behind the strings.

Grand: Under the lid – on the iron frame, for example near the tuning pins or beneath the music desk; also on the wooden soundboard beneath the strings.

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What if some digits are unreadable?

Keep readable characters in their original order and mark any unreadable positions. One missing digit is different from an unknown section at the beginning or end of a number.

Do not fill a missing digit with a guess. A partly readable number may match several possible periods; other features can then help narrow the result.

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Can a piano be dated without its serial number?

A complete brand name, a place name or an earlier company name can sometimes help. Founding dates, moves and the end of production may provide context. The company’s founding year is not the manufacturing year of an individual piano.

The action or keyboard may offer additional clues. These components have their own makers and sometimes their own numbering sequences. A component’s date is a clue, not automatically the completion year of the whole instrument.

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Which dates can be misleading?

Dates beside medals or awards refer first to the award. They are not direct evidence of the instrument’s manufacturing year.

Handwritten entries may come from manufacture, but they may also record later tuning or repairs. What a marking describes and where it appears both matter.

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Does a piano’s age tell me its value or whether it needs repair?

The year of manufacture alone does not determine a piano’s value or condition. Construction, preservation and previous work also matter. An old piano may still play well or be worth repairing.

If a piano no longer holds its tuning, or a tuner has declined further work, replacement is not the only possible outcome. The cause needs to be assessed first. Many checks can be carried out at the instrument, and some repairs to loose tuning pins are also possible on site, depending on the findings. PIANOHOF advises on piano repair and restoration in Berlin and the surrounding area.

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Why might the result be a period rather than a single year?

For some makers, only a few dated numbers are known. Number allocation, completion and sale may also have taken place at different times. A period expresses that uncertainty rather than implying an exact year.

Different numbering series or reused numbers can produce several possible years. With fewer dated examples, the estimate remains broader. “Approx.” marks an estimate, not a documented completion date.

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