We have just heard from the piano restorers that the Bechstein piano has a beautiful and most unusual rosewood veneer underneath the standard black lacquer. The restorers say: “In complete contrast to our expectations to be finding the standard ebonised pearwood – standard for ebonised finishes – instead there is a rich rosewood veneer. It is unusual to say the least to find rosewood underneath a black lacquer, but since Bechstein would never have used a fine veneer like this to be subsequently black (why would they ??), the only realistic conclusion is that this piano, when despatched from Bechstein’s factory, would originally have been rosewood, and that, at some time in its past, someone felt the need to alter (cover-up) its original finish from rosewood with an ebonised lacquer…. [T]he appearance of rosewood is a real bonus, due to the richness of the grain and the wonderful beauty of the woodgrain cabinetwork”.