Ibach-Welte Grand Piano
Built: 1924
Serial number: 87909
Mechanism: Welte T100 (red)
Length: 2.0 m
Ibach-Welte Flügel are very rare. In the article by Hans-W. Schmitz "Die Stückzahlen der Welte-Mignon Instrumente" it is mentioned that approx. 55 Ibach-Welte Grand pianos have been built. This unique grand piano was built in 1924 according to a draft of the famous luxury furniture manufacturer Anton Pössenbacher (1877-1959). There were two such grand pianos, according to this draft - one was a Ibach grand piano that was located in the music room of the hotel Adlon, Berlin, till its destruction in WWII, and this grand piano, built as a Welte reproducing grand piano. This grand piano with six wonderfully shaped legs and its unique decoration is fantastically preserved. The Welte mechanism didn't work any more, it had to be renovated due to normal aging of the material. The original pump box was missing - it had to be rebuilt incl the original handcrafted wooden decoration strip. The acoustical piano has been restored as close as possible to the authentic condition in 1924 to re-built the original tone and touch.
During the restoration process we had to re-built the pump box by using an orginal motor. As you can see at the photos, we had to built a completely new pump box interior. The result is phantastic - the pump box works with merely no disturbing noise. The entire Welte player mechanism has been renovated by replacing all the rubber, leather, etc. elements. An extra challenge was the condition of the resistor - it was in an extremely bad condition. After restoration the piano plays beautifully again. It really is a one-of-its-kind piano.
Today this unique piano is part of a piano collection - sometimes used for special concerts.
Ibach-Welte Grand Piano
