2) Under the opened lid on the ledge, stamped on a little plaque, to the right or to the left. The serial number may be to the right or the left, or in the middle. After lifting up the lid, look along the top front area of the plate. Upright Piano, Serial Number 85514, Jesse French & Sons Piano Company. Serial number locations are found: 1) On the piano’s cast iron plate. Uprights usually have the serial number stamped on the plate near the top of the piano or stamped in a window in the plate. The Choicest Gem: Conover Grand Piano, The Cable Company, Chicago, Circa 1905. This is looking from the tail end of the piano. Kimball pianos sometimes have the serial number in a hard-to-find place stamped on the back edge of the keybed. Cable was an affiliate of the Cable Piano Company together with other Cables, specifically his brothers Fayette S. Sometimes the number is stamped in the soundboard under the strings. The most common place on a grand piano is stamped on the plate in the V shaped area between the tenor and the bass sections of the plate or at the treble end. Some piano have other numbers stamped on them that are used in the manufacturing process. For European pianos, Bill Kibby in England has better information than we do at Piano Gen. You are usually looking for a 5 or 6 digit number. Dates that are cast into the plate of a piano are dates when the company was founded and not dates for the particular piano. They can be in unusual places and this page shows some of the places to find the serial number. Pianos almost always have a serial number somewhere.
