Philipps Duca Reproduktions-Klaviere Rolles

(Photograph courtesy of Thomas Richter)

The above selection of Philipps Duca Reproducing Piano rolls show some of the paper colors used by Philipps over the years. At top is an early red paper roll, followed by green, pink, and chamois (some may choose to call this white). The top three rolls are single tune rolls, while the late chamois colored roll is multi-tune.

(Photograph courtesy of Thomas Richter)

This pink colored Philipps Duca roll illustrates the standard lock and cancel expression controls located along each side of the music roll, with the bass controls on the left side, and the treble piano controls on the right side. The standard Duca expression system is similar to the Welte T-100 system.

(Photograph courtesy of Thomas Richter)

This late style Philipps Duca roll is unusual in that it contains control perforations for both the standard Duca lock and cancel expression mechanisms (similar to the Welte T-100), but in addition the roll also has chain perforations along its sides suitable for controlling a simpler and cheaper to build expression mechanism (similar to the Welte T-98). Normally Duca reproducing pianos use a lock and cancel type of expression system, but for some reason in later times Philipps made Duca pianos with a more simplified system that did away with the more complicated lock and cancel mechanisms. The roll label makes no mention of the roll's dual control capabilities, and no Duca pianos requiring the special chain perforations are currently know to mainstream collectors.

(Photograph courtesy of Thomas Richter)

Philipps DucArtist roll No. 5004. Philipps made a foot-pumped player piano known as the Ducanola, which played standard 88-note accentuated "Philag" (Philipps AG) rolls. A combination instrument, bringing together the best of the player piano and the Duca reproducing system, was the DucArtist. It played both 88-note player rolls and DucArtist reproducing rolls. The DucArtist rolls were the sized to fit the 88-note spool but with the perforations of the Duca, which left a strip of unused paper along each side of the roll. The DucArtist piano was fitted with both an electric pump and a foot-pump. To accommodate playing the two different roll types, each with a different tracker bar spacing, the instrument used a two-row tracker bar.