World Famous Composer's Lost Piano Found

How would you like to own a piano previously own by a world famous composer and not know it. Alec Cobbe was shocked by the the news that the piano he bought 20 years ago for 2,000 pounds was actually the last piano that Chopin took on tour with him in 1848.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin,born in Poland March 1, 1810 in the town of Zelazowa Wola, to a polish mother and a french father.When he was just a few months old the family moved to Warsaw where he was proclaimed as a child prodigy. He was performing by the age of seven when he had even already composed two works of music. Chopin later moved to Paris France where he lived and worked with many great composers and musicians and also changed his name to the french version Frederic.This is also where he died of pulmonary tuberculosis in October 1849, at the age of 39.

The discovery was made by Professor Jean-Jacques Eigeldinger, a swiss musical scholar. Eigeldinger came onto the trail of this missing piano when he researched the records of French piano maker Camille Pleyel.

Before Frederic Chopin left England for Paris, after what would be his last tour before his death in 1849. Chopin sold the piano to Lady Trotter. Lady Trotter, an English Aristocrat gave the piano to a relative. The Pleyel piano from there went to a country mansion before going to auction. At auction it was then sold to the dealer from which Cobbe then purchased the Piano.

There are only three pianos in the world known to have been owned by Frederic Chopin and this one is the only one of the three that still works. The other two pianos not in working condition reside in Paris and Majorca. The third piano just recently discovered now resides at Hatchlands, a country house in the southern English county of Surrey. It is run by the Britain's National Trust and is part of Cobbe's collection. The Chopin piano sits among instruments that were either played or possessed by Purcell, Bach, Mozart and Mahler.
(www.en.wikipedia.org, www.news.yahoo.com)