1911 Melville Clark “Apollo” Player Piano

ABOUT THIS PIANO: Player pianos like this one were once common in homes throughout the United States. In fact, long before the radio or phonograph, it was the player piano that introduced music to society on a large scale. Prior to the introduction of the player piano, the only way our ancestors knew the melody of a song was to learn it from a friend of family member, hear it played live on an instrument or by an ensemble, or to read it on a piece of printed music! It really is incredible to consider how important the player piano was to our ancestor’s culture and society.

Unfortunately, the self-playing mechanisms sometimes made tuning a player piano slightly more difficult than tuning a regular piano. This is because piano tuners would have to remove the player mechanisms in order to access the strings. When the player mechanisms stopped working after about 40 years, piano tuners would often remove the player mechanisms once and for all, throwing them in the trash with no consideration to them ever being restored.

This beautiful Melville Clark Apollo player piano was purchased new in 1911 and passed down through several generations. It is made of beautiful book-matched walnut wood and is of the Mission style. Unfortunately, the player mechanisms were removed by the local piano tuner sometime around World War II. Sometime between the 1940s and the 1980s, the piano was painted bright yellow, then years later the yellow paint was removed (along with the original finish and the original APOLLO name decal above the keyboard). When the current owners inherited the piano, they wanted to have it restored back to its former glory as a player piano.