Jan 2, 2004 Highlights of Music Trades, Jan 2004.
     Pleyel Marks 200th Year. "The only piano manufacturer in France, producing 50 grand pianos and 1,350 verticals annually...by 80 employees"  ( I Have a client with a 183 Pleyel purchased in France in 1996 and brought to the US.  I would put it against any other piano of its size for world's best!!) 
     "After Camellia Pleyel, gifted pianist and renowned piano maker, launched Chopin's career in 1832 with a concert in one of his salons, from that time on  Mason Pleyel became the master's official piano supplier.  The brand is imbued with the prestige of the artist who gave all his Parisian public concerts in Pleyel salons.  Other composers and musicians who played Pleyel included, Gounod, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Debussy, Stravinsky, Honegger, Ravel, deFalla, and Grieg. (p 170)