Message on dismantled piano strikes a chord with Corner Brook man
Keith Piercey may have torn apart his old piano several years ago, but it still has at least one resonating note left in it.
After the Corner Brook resident dismantled the instrument his family took possession of about 30 years ago, he piled all of the wood in his basement.
The plan was to reuse some of the gorgeous, dark-coloured wood. One project he took on was to create a new leaf for a friend’s family dinner table. He made a beautiful shelf out of another piece.
Just before Christmas, he went down to the remaining pile. He picked up a piece and noticed there was writing on it.
The handwritten note asked the finder to please contact a person by the name of John Lee, care of Wes Lee in Oshawa, Ont., and was dated January 1914.
In parentheses, the note said “17 years old,” which Piercey assumed was the age of the author, John Lee.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw there was a message on it,” said Piercey. “I had never noticed it before.”
The wood was from the piece behind the keyboard cover and never would have been visible while the piano was playable.
Piercey felt it would be a shame to use that piece without trying to get to the bottom of why the words were there.
He asked around on the Internet to see if it might be a longstanding tradition for piano builders to leave such notes in their creations.
One responder, John A. Tuttle of PlayerCare.com, said he had taken apart thousands of pianos and had never found such a note. Tuttle did tell Piercey it was common for rebuilders to sign and date their work.
The request for contact stymied Gary Bennett of Corner Brook. Bennett has been tuning pianos for years and has found some rather interesting stuff — from a lacquer knife left behind by one Korean manufacturer to old currency and mice poop — but never a note like this.
“There is a Lee family that is a big name in the Vancouver music scene and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some sort of connection with them,” suggested Bennett.
If Piercey can find a descendent of John and Wes Lee, he would like nothing more than to offer them the modest piece of wood with the simple message scribbled on it.
“If this is a piece of some family’s history, I would want them to have it if they want it,” said Piercey.