There have been a great many strange things that have appeared at my apartment complex’s dumpsters over the years. Such as the grandfather clock that now sits in my living room.
This weekend’s find, however, tops even that.
A century-old player piano.
It is, unfortunately, missing the “player” part of the piano — namely, the lid and the mechanism — but I “tickled the ivory,” so to speak, and the piano part, at least, still works and has a fantastic sound.
How do I know it’s a player piano, though? Because it says it’s by The Autopiano Company of New York, and according to this site on antique pianos, the Autopiano Company was in business from 1902 to about 1930, which also puts the century-ish date on its age.
I feel awful leaving it there, but I have no room for it in my tiny apartment, and I’m not even sure I’d be able to get it through the apartment door if I did.
This piano has seen some stuff. This piano has history.
Hopefully someone retrieves this antique and restores it back to the musical life it so richly deserves.
Edited to Add: No one saved the piano from its sad fate, which I wrote about in part here. It was eventually hauled away. Everything that it was, everything that it had experienced in its century was lost.