What to do with a truckful of antique pianos?

That’s the question now facing Scarborough businessman and community volunteer Sam Kelley, who recently bought a 45-foot trailer filled with several dozen upright and baby grand pianos dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Kelley, who buys and sells used tractor-trailers, came across the stash of historic pianos late last year at a Scarborough trucking company while out on a buying mission. He purchased them on a whim, hoping that there might be interest in the old pianos.

Kelley also wonders if there might be a hidden gem among the instruments or whether anyone may be interested in using the often intricately carved wooden pianos for other things, like a mantelpiece, bookshelves or other decorative items.

No one seems to know why the pianos were collected in the first place or who actually collected them.

The owners at the business where Kelley spotted the trailer only knew that a local man had initially purchased them and that they were originally stored in a warehouse until he lost the lease. The pianos were then transferred, more than a decade ago, to the trailer that Kelley bought.

Although each has a patent number, Kelley fears it would be virtually impossible to trace their history. Several of the pianos also bear the mark of well-respected piano manufacturers, including Steinway, Weber and Schwander.

Kelley has advertised the pianos on craigslist and said so far the majority of the people who’ve come to view them have expressed the most interest in the upright Steinway, though he hasn’t sold it yet.

Fully restored Victorian Steinways, like the one in Kelley’s possession, can go for nearly $30,000, according to The Antique Piano Shop, a shop in Tennessee that specializes in historic pianos.

Kelley never played the piano himself, but has become quite fond of his haphazard collection of historic pianos, and he hopes that someone out there would find a use for them, whether to restore them to their former glory, or dismantle them for parts.

“I would hate to just see them end up on the dump heap,” Kelley said.

This fear is partially why he made the investment in the first place. He declined to say how much the trailer cost him.

Kelley owns MBI Trailers Inc., located in an industrial area off Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough. He buys and sells used tractor-trailers from around the country, which are used for hauling or storage.

He and his wife, Jean, have lived in Scarborough for nearly 40 years. He is actively involved in the nonprofit community group Project GRACE and also leads the monthly Let’s Talk America group at the library. His wife is a retired teacher, who taught math at Scarborough Middle School for about 28 years.

“I’m always on the lookout for trailers,” Kelley said in his office last week.

In addition to trailers, he also buys and sells shipping containers that are mostly used on cargo ships.

In late November he heard that a local trucking company he’d purchased trailers from before had a variety of trailers for sale.

He went to look and that’s when he stumbled across the antique pianos. Kelley said he’s only ever purchased empty trailers in the past, but there was something about the trailer stuffed with old pianos that was intriguing.

Kelley said the pianos were so packed into the trailer that they were difficult to extract. He has moved 10 or so of the pianos to his warehouse and the rest remain in the trailer.

He said it took heavy equipment to move the pianos, some of which weighed half a ton. It was while moving some of the pianos from the trailer that Kelley unearthed the Steinway.

While Kelley has had no buyers as yet, “everybody that comes and looks is fascinated,” he said.

Various piano-focused websites have referred to Steinway as “undoubtedly (the) most popular piano manufacturer in the world,” and said that even today Steinway “enjoys a reputation equal to none.”

Steinway & Sons was founded in New York in 1853, and although the company may be best known for its grand pianos, it also manufactured upright pianos throughout the mid- to late-1800s.

While Steinway is perhaps the best-known name, Weber Piano Co., in its day, gave Steinway a run for its money, according to antique piano websites.

The Weber Piano Co. was founded in 1852 by Albert Weber and it went on to receive medals at the Philadelphia World’s Fair in 1876, the London World’s Fair in 1887 and the Paris World’s Fair in 1889.

The Bluebook of Pianos website states that the value of antique pianos varies “with condition, age, type of wood (and) style.”

The Bluebook website also said that pianos from the 1800s to the early 1900s are valuable because “these instruments were usually finished in mahogany, oak or walnut, with a nice medium to medium-dark patina.”

Kelley shows off an ornately decorated and carved piano frontpiece. In November, he bought a tractor-trailer full of antique upright pianos.The innards of one of Kelley’s antique pianos.This upright antique Steinway has garnered the most interest.