Hi, folks. Thanks for letting me join your forum.
A while back, the father of a friend gave me all his tools when he moved from his house, after a career as a piano repairman and before that a builder at Steinway. (I've built one and nearing a second bass guitar from boards on up, and he liked my work.) Amongst the stuff was this tailpiece cover.
Doing an image search, I think this could be a rather old F5 cover. Is that right?
The closest thing to it that I found on Reverb was a cover that looked similar but was nickel plated, and was engraved.
A few observations on it:
- the design is debossed, also called impressed or embossed depending on your terminology. It is pressed in from the front, and on the rear face it is slightly raised, and then sanded on the raised areas to lower them.
- the metal looks like what I've seen in old nickel silver. I suppose tin or zinc could also look like this, possibly. It doesn't chime but it rings a bit when dropped, like nickel silver, and I think of tin and zinc as having a dull thud.
- there is no oxidation other than the general dullness. This includes the sanding marks on the back, which very strongly suggests that it is not a plated material.
- there is no varnish or other clearcoat on it.
- I haven't yet tried polishing a spot on the backside to see what happens, but I suppose I could.
So, can anyone identify this, and give me an idea of its fair value? Especially if it is a vintage piece, I'd like to see it find a home on an appropriate instrument.
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