IT was, the auctioneer said, a sad day for the piano trade in Scotland. But the closing-down sale at the Edinburgh Piano Company was a hectic one, too, attracting lots of visitors, including Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos (below).
A high volume of online bids from overseas was entertained, too.
The sale at the company's store in Edinburgh's Joppa Road came about after the owner, James Cameron, announced that he was retiring from the business. The 73-year-old had told The Herald: "There cones a time when you want to move on and do something else."
The Valentine's Day sale went exceptionally well, said the auctioneer Sean McIlroy, director of specialist auctioneers Piano Auctions Ltd. "We had an absolutely packed room - there must have been 200-odd people there," he said.
Some 90 pianos went up for auction, including a Bösendorfer, from Vienna, which fetched a hammer price of £37,000 - though the figure was nearer £45,000 once a 20 per cent buyer's premium, and VAT on that premium, were taken into account.
"But I also sold a grand piano for £100, so there was everywhere between £100 and £45,000, and every stop inbetween," he added. "There was lots of online interest from all over the world. We had people registered to bid online from China and Israel ... there were telephone bids from Germany and France."
In the event, the auction raised a total of £373,809, once the buyers' premium and VAT were factored in.
"It was a fantastic day, and I was really chuffed for Mr Cameron," added Mr McIlroy. "But this was something a double-edged sword for me today, because I have been selling pianos at auctions to James for the last 30 years, so this was the end of an era as far as I was concerned.
The store's reputation helped explain the popularity of the auction. "A lot of the buyers here were historically James' clients. There were families in with children today, too. There were parents buying pianos for children who were probably bought pianos by their own parents when James was running the company back in the 1980s.
"It's quite a sad day for the piano trade in Scotland, because there aren't that many dealers. When one retires and he is not replaced, that means one less dealer, I'm afraid."
Asked if it had been a sad day for him, Mr Cameron said: "In a way yes, in a way, no. A lot of the customers were very happy because they got pianos and they got them at good prices.
"It will take a wee while, though, before the penny drops, before I get up in the morning and I realise I don't need to come in here and get on with my work. But I'm quite pleased the auction has gone well."
Mr Cameron now plans to turn an old country house in Biggar into a music and arts centre. "That gives me a good interest," he said. "Everybody has been asking, 'What on earth will you do when you retire?', so I want to make sure I have something to do."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here