The company made its name producing the Pianola, a pneumatic player piano developed in 1897 by Edwin Votey, 1983 suffering a financial crisis, the company was sold to the former president of Steinway, Peter Perez. Perez worked hard to market the company’s chief assets-the names Chickering, Mason and Hamlin, and Knabe-and was able to run around the company’s image, but the continued production of poor instruments led to the final demise of this well-known make. They went out of production in 1985.

Dates and serial numbers when the pianos were manufactured