Antique Hobart & Coinola Player Piano w/ Rolls Collection & Vintage Additions

Description

Antique Hobart & Coinola Player Piano w/ Rolls Collection & Vintage Additions
This unique machine is an antique/vintage hybrid. It is an electric player piano, more than likely coin-operated in its original incarnation, but has been modified to work with a power switch. It features a beautiful 1912 Hobart M. Cable Co. sound board, a 1930s era Coinola player with orchestra bells that has been enhanced with a 1970s animatronic display, and a clown automaton that winds and rewinds the rolls as part of the Coinola mechanism.
This entire piece has been updated and tuned. This piece is a mish-mash of history and was more than likely a staple at a traveling carnivals or fair.  It comes with twelve player rolls and replacement boards as well as an external bellows. The Hobart soundboard bears the serial number 32907. It measures 98 1/2" high, 64" wide, 29" deep. This piece is in good condition with signs of wear to the veneer typical of items of this age. There are also character marks visible from use. Please consult images and message with any questions.
A bit of history on all the parts:
Hobart M. Cable was established in 1900 in La Porte, Indiana and has manufactured pianos and piano players in the United States for over 65 years. Prior to 1900, Hobart M. Cable was an affiliate of the Cable Piano Company, started with his brothers Fayette S. Cable and H.D. Cable. All three made pianos for other noteworthy brands. The Hobart Cable Co. was in business until the mid-1960s. At some point, the Story & Clark Co. made the Cable instruments available for resale, but no new instruments were being manufactured. Then, the Hobart brand was acquired by America Sejung Corp. and they decided to both retain the original name (Hobart M. Cable Co.) and make new instruments available that are made to the exacting high quality and purity of sound for which the original Hobart instruments became famous. They possess a remarkably soulful, pure tone combined with extraordinary power and depth. The very specific manufacturing process the instruments undergo distinguishes them from modern products and enhances their general excellence. The scientific basis of quality in the Hobart M. Cable piano is the scale. It is smooth, constant and fulfilling and captures the trained and untrained musical ear alike.  Hobart M. Cable pianos are notable instruments, possessing all of the fundamental qualities and attributes of a mid to high-grade piano.
The Operators Piano Company was founded in 1909 by Louis Severson, C.R Dribble, and Alfred Livingston of Chicago, Illinois, and was to become a prolific enterprise responsible for manufacturing a wide variety of coin-operated pianos and orchestrions, which are highly prized by mechanical music collectors today. Operators introduced the Coinola brand name in 1913 and made its own player mechanisms, The first Coinola model was the Style A, a piano with mandolin attachment, and have the same case design as the original Victor player piano design, but with all the interior mechanism made by Operators. Before long other style of the A roll Piano followed, as such as the Bell Piano, which is basically a Style A with a 24-note set of orchestra bells mounted inside. By 1914, the Operators' line included a variety of keyboard and cabinet coin piano styles, along with a variety of instrumentation options. In 1919, Operators arguably reached the peak of its popularity with the introduction of the tall style CO keyboard piano orchestrion, and then the debut of the largest coin instrument ever to be made by the company, the Style SO cabinet orchestrion in 1920. The decade that followed showed a sharp decline in sales and new instruments were no longer being shipped out as of 1931. Coinola coin pianos and orchestrions are known for their great instrumentation and jig-worthy sound. Much of that is because of the solo "O" music rolls which were made for the last two significant cabinet Styles. Coinolas are hard to come by as so few survive and are seriously outnumbered by the more prolific Seeburg and Wurlitzer models.
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Item code: LABBB rb