THE GIFT OF A-xv^b^-yx :: va.\.Vx'l.o'y. Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022449163 Jranklin Snatihtte of |)£niisglt)ania, WHICH HAS EXERCISED SUCH A POTENT INFLUENCE UPON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE AND THE KINDRED ARTS, THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICA TED. TO THE PIANOFORTE. Oh friend, whom glad or grave we seek, Heaven-holding shrine ! I ope thee, touch thee, hear thee speak. And peace is mine. No fairy casket, full of bliss, ' Out-values thee ; Love only, wakened with a kiss, More sweet may be. To thee, when our full hearts o'erflovv In griefs or joys. Unspeakable emotions owe A fitting voice : Mirth flies to thee, and love's unrest, And memory dear. And sorrow, with his tightened breast, Comes for a tear. Oh. since few joys of human mould Thus wait us still Thrice bless'd be thine, thou gentle fold Of peace at will ; No change, no sullenness, no cheat, In thee we find ; Thy saddest voice is ever sweet, — Thine answer, kind. — Leigh Hunt. HISTORY OF THE American Pianoforte; ITS TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT, AND THE TRADE. BY DANIEL SPILLANE. ILLUSTRATED. NEW YORK : D. SPILLANE, Publisher, 23 East 14TH Street. 1890. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year iSgo, by DANIEL SPILLANE. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. BURR PRINTING HOUSE, FRANKFORT AND JACOB STS., N. Y. CONTENTS. ERRATA In page 76, twentieth line, for J. J. Watson, read J. P. Watson. In page 87, fifteenth line, in connection with Jonas Chickering, add, bom April Sth, 1798. In page 262, seventeenth line, for June 20th, rea.A January T.oth. In illustration, facing page 296, for P. G. Mehlin & Sons' " Hammer Scale," read " Harmonic Scale." In page 309, eighteenth line, for 1884, read 1887. BOSTON. A Spinet in 1770— Revolutionary Pianofortes— Von Hagen— First Pianofortes —Crehore—Appleton—Osborn— Stewart 45 CHAPTER V. NEW YORK. Early Harpsichord and Pianoforte Importers— Tremaine—Zedwitz—Pierson —Pianofortes— Giles— Marquis de Chastellux—Astor— Campbell— Dodds &Claus 59 CHAPTER VI. PHILADELPHIA. The First Pianoforte Made on this Continent— John Behrent— Julian— Al- brecht — Taws— More about Hawkins— Thomas Jefferson 72 CONTENTS. Introductory CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. The Clavichord — Spinet— Virginal — Harpsichord — The First Pianoforte — Cristofori — Marius — SchrSeter — Early London Pianoforte-Makers — Broad- ivood's Improvements . . .■ 13 CHAPTER II. THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. The House of Erard— Pleyel — Pape — More about English Pianoforte-Making —The First Introduction of Iron — Hawkins— CoUards — The Upright Piano- forte — Marius— Southwell 24 CHAPTER HI. THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. Southwell's Uprights — His Action— Southwell's " Cabinet"— Wornum's Im- portant Developments in Action Mechanism — Timothy Gilbert, of Boston Chickering — Allen & Thom's Metal Frames — Stewart's Patent — Broad- wood's Hitch-Pin Plate— Miscellaneous Items 34 CHAPTER IV. BOSTON. A Spinet in 1770— Revolutionary Pianofortes— Von Hagen— First Pianofortes — Crehore—Appleton—Osborn— Stewart 45 CHAPTER V. NEW YORK. Early Harpsichord and Pianoforte Importers— Tremaine—Zedwitz—Pierson —Pianofortes— Giles— Marquis de Chastellux—Astor— Campbell— Dodds &Claus 59 CHAPTER VI. PHILADELPHIA. The First Pianoforte Made on this Continent— John Behrent— Julian— Al- brecht — Taws — More about Hawkins— Thomas Jefferson 72 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. BOSTON. PACE Some Statistics— More about Stewart — Osborn—Dwight—Mackay— Jonas Chickering— His Patents— Goodrich— The Gilberts— Currier's Patent 54 CHAPTER VIII. NEW YORK. Charles Taws Appears— More about the Importation of Pianos— Dodds's Pianos— Old Newspaper Items— Gilfert— Dr. Anderson— Gibson & Davis —The Geibs-Chartres—Kearsing— Dubois & Stodart— Bacon & Raven. . . (J7 CHAPTER IX. PHILADELPHIA. First Importers in Philadelphia— The Blakes— The First United States Patent Concerning Pianos — McLean- Moreof Hawkins — The Louds— The Frank- lin Institute — Albrecht — Meyer & Babcock no CHAPTER X. CHARLESTON AND BALTIMORE. Early Piano-Making in Charleston — The First Parade of Musical Instrument Makers — Watts — Baltimore — Harper — Stewart — Hiskey — Gaehle— Knabe Appears — Knabe & Gaehle — Knabe & Company 124 CHAPTER XI. ALBANY. Meacham & Company — Bury's Patent — Clemence & Burns — Osborn, Mar- shall, James & Traver — Hazelton — Boardman & Gray — Myron A. Decker — Buffalo — Rochester — Utica and Troy — Music in Albany 137 CHAPTER XII. NEW YORK. Founding of the Mechanics' Institute — The First Exhibitors — Stodart it Dubois — R. & W. Nunns — Nunns & Clark — Sackmeister — Kreter's Ham- mer-Covering Machine — Firth & Hall — Osborn — John Jardine — Abbott — Walker's Tuning-Pin 148 CHAPTER XIII. BOSTON.I Steinway & Sons' Historical Sketch — Brown & Hallet — Hallet & Davis — Hallet & Allen — Brown & Allen — Woodward & Brown — Bourne & Com- pany—Emerson — Briggs — G. M. Guild — Vose & Sons — Henry F. Miller & Sons 163 CONTENTS. vii, CHAPTER XIV. NEW YORK. ,,^j.„, Thomas Loud, Sr.— His Origin— Stodart, Worcester & Dunham— Their Subsequent Career— Osborn's Shop -A. H. Gale & Company-Haines Brotliers—Lmdeman— Linden & Fritz— Pethick- Minor Makers 178,. CHAPTER XV. PHILADELPHIA, ETC. Some Random Remarks on Exhibitions —State Fairs— Meyer— Schomacker & Company— Mr. Gray's Electro Gold String Patent— Philadelphia Piano- Makers m ihe South— New Orleans— Savannah, Ga.— Minor Remarks— Pittsburg, Pa ,yo, CHAPTER XVL NEW YORK. America at the London World's Fair— Statistics on Piano Manufacturing for 1851— Lighte & Newton— Bradbury— Modern Old Houses— Hazelton Bro- thers— Haines Brothers— Incidental References 195 CHAPTER XVII. NEW YORK. The Great American World's Fair of 1853— European Piano-Makers— New York Exhibitors — The House of Steinway & Sons— Raven & Bacon— Bacon & Karr— Francis Bacon 2n CHAPTER XVIII. NEW YORK. The Driggs Innovations— Mathushek— Van Winkle— The House of Weber — Its Origin and Evolution— George Steck & Company — Another Impor- tant Firm — Decker & Son 225 CHAPTER XIX. NEW YORK. Some Modern Firms— Behning & Son — Bradbury — F. G. Smith— The House of Decker Brothers — Kranich & Bach — Narvesen— Walters — Marschall & Mittauer — Sohmer& Company 243. CHAPTER XX. NEW YORK. The Great Centennial Exhibition — Foreign Countries Represented — Some In- cidental Remarks — The Modern House of Chickering & Sons— Patents — P. J. Gildemeester — The Paine Episode 258 CHAPTER XXI. NEW YORK. Behr Brothers & Co. — Mr. Henry Behr — An Important House — Their Inven- tions — James & Holmstrom — Conover Brothers — George Conover — J. Frank Conover — Another Significant Firm 270 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. NEW YORK. PAOE .Modern Makers — The " Estey'' Pianoforte — Krakauer Brothers — Wheelock 1.^ Company — Kroeger & Sons — Paul G. Mehlin & Sons — His Inventions.. 283 CHAPTER XXIII. MISCELLANEOUS FIRMS. Knabe & Company from the Modern Standpoint — Hardman, Peck & Com- pany — I vers & Pond, Boston — The Smith American Piano Company — The Sterling Company — Mason & Hamlin— Chicago — Random Notes 297 CHAPTER XXIV. KINDRED BRANCHES. Action-Making — Prefatory Remarks — Some Old Makers— Wessell, Nickel & Gross— Alfred Dolge — The Firm of Strauch Brothers — General References. 311 CHAPTER XXV. KINDRED BRANCHES. The Casting of Piano Plates — A Concomitant Branch — Davenport & Treacy — Their Rapid Advancement — Varnish Making — Hotopp & Company 330 CHAPTER XXVI. MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. The Influence of a Special Press on Piano Manufacturing — Early Editors — Mason Brothers and the Musical Review — Hagen — Henry C. Watson — The Musical Chronicle — The Times — The American Art Journal — William M. Thoms — John C. Freund — The American Musician — Harry E. Freund and Music and Drama — C. A. Welles — Messrs. Blumenberg & Floersheim — A Western Pioneer, O. L. Fox — The Chicago Indicator — General Remarks. . . 344 APPENDICES. A. — PROMINENT PIANISTS AND TEACHERS .' 363 B. — LIST OF IMPORTANT PATENTS FROM 1796 TO 189O 364 PORTRAITS. John Broadwood Sebastian Erard. Jonas Chickering. John Jacob Astor. William Knabe. Henry E. Steinvfay. William B. Bradbury. John Firth. Isaac Woodward. George Jardine. John B. Dunham. James A. Gray. Henry C. Watson. Albert Weber, Sr. Henry F. Miller. John C. Freund. William M. Thoms. Napoleon J. Haines. Henry Hazelton. INTRODUCTORY. In launching forth this, the first history of the Ameri- can pianoforte, I cannot help pointing out the fact that it is the first work of the kind published in any country that treats on the instrument from the technical, histori- cal, industrial, national, and personal standpoints con- cretely, while it attempts to create a broad and living interest in the pianoforte business by bringing it down to the present time as a development. The great tech- nical minds that have been especially identified with the instrument in this country, however, stand forth in their proper sphere. In shaping the policy of the work, I have been actuated by a desire to elevate the character of the pianoforte business, as a whole, above mere com- monplace commercialism, haying in mind the large place the piano has filled for the past century, and in particular during the past twenty-five years, as a factor in our civilization ; as a source of household joy, a silent symbol in every home of the mysterious and humanizing influence of music. Believing the piano, as we know it, to be a development to which hundreds of minds, greater and lesser, have contributed, I have attempted to engraft that belief into the practical sphere of this history. If X INTRODUCTORY. the modern aspect of the work isnot as complete in every respect as it probably might Jae, it has resulted from the apathy and distrust of members of the pianoforte firms to whom I have applied for information as to their personal and technical history. In many cases much discour- tesy was experienced from persons whose sole interest in the art business they follow is that of mere speculators. If, however, impartial mention of them in these pages in relation to American pianoforte history, past and present, makes them prouder of and more interested in the business they are associated with, the writer shall have accomplished much indeed. In this connection I acknowledge my indebtedness to the musical and trade press, which has assisted my researches on modern his- tory. In relation to the earlier chapters, only people who have essayed the task or gone over the field mentally can estimate the vast amount of work and research en- tailed in the compilation and writing of a volume of this peculiar character, particularly in the present instance, as no previous investigations of this nature have been published beyond afew insignificant fragmentary articles. Be this as it may, I wish merely to point out that I have tried to rescue the remote history of the American piano- forte business, its antecedents and its people, from obliv- ion, and in my procedure have brought to light many novel facts as well, all of interest to the historian of American musical art. For personal assistance in procuring early facts of in- terest for these chapters I am indebted to Mr. Mendes Cohen, Secretary Maryland Historical Society, and Mr. W. Whitelock, of Baltimore ; Mr. J. W. Jor- INTRODUCTORY. xi dan, Assistant-Librarian Pennsylvania Historical So- ciety ; Mr. William H. Wahl, Secretary Franklin In- stitute, Philadelphia ; Mr. George H. Chickering, Boston ; Mr. Henry Kleber, Pittsburg ; Mr. William Steinway, Mr. W. M. Thorns, Mr. Henry Hazelton, Mr. Edward Jardine, of New York, Mr. Thaddeus Firth, of Maspeth, L. I., General Di Cesnola, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Mrs. Albert Weber, Sr., Port Chester, N. Y. To all these I tender my sin- cere thanks. The late Mr. James A. Gray, of Albany, also rendered me some services which I can only acknowl- edge here, owing to the recent death of thiat much-es- teemed member of the trade. In compiling the chapters relating to Europe, I have been assisted by the writings of Mr. A. J. Hipkins, Mr. Edgar Brinsmead, Dr. Oscar Paul, Fetis, and Rimbault, while I have made personal re- searches in the British Patent Office records, as indicated. Several original facts in relation to William Southwell, of Dublin, were procured through the kindness of Mr. Augustine Southwell, of Philadelphia, his grandson. Unlike most standard European works by the authors named, no section has been devoted to a treatise on the acoustic or physical basis of the pianoforte. This is al- ready elaborately and ably exemplified in most of the European writings indicated, all derived ostensibly, with modifications, from the works of Helmholtz, Tyndal, and through other familiar channels, I have made no attempt to illustrate the early actions of Cristofori, Broadwood, or any other early European de- velopments of that nature, recognizing the fact that the works of those authors named stand as authorities for the European history of the pianoforte, past and present, xil IN TROD UCrOR Y. in a detailed sense ; neither have I attempted to give practical chapters devoted to tuning, toning, and famil- iar branches of the business of interest to practical tuners, dealers, and others from the American standpoint. All this has no rightful place in a work of this character. The field, moreover, is already covered by Mr. E. Quincy Norton, of Mobile, Ala., whose little book, " Construc- tion and Care of the Pianoforte" (Ditson & Company, Boston), is the cleverest and most concise work of this technical nature ever published in any country, and is admirably explanatory, while the author is eminently qualified by experience for the task. I have also secured several facts of interest from " Musical Instruments and Their Homes," by William A. and Mary E. Brown (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York). I am aware that it is customary in historical works to give a list of authorities and sources from which infor- mation has been derived. These are, however, in the present instance carried into the body of the work infor- mally, while the vast numbers of old newspapers, maga- zines, annals, and historical works consulted for the purpose of procuring information cannot be given spe- cifically owing to space, and would serve no end in real- ity, because properly the formality belongs to a class of literature that involves issues and disputes of conse- quence. I have, however, taken pains in my chapters to bring forward proofs in support of technical points or facts of significance. How I have fulfilled the task throughout and satisfied the musical public and the members of the pianoforte business remains to be seen. February i^th, 1890. HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. CHAPTER I. The Origin of the Pianoforte. THE CLAVICHORD — SPINET — VIRGINAL — HARPSICHORD — THE FIRST PIANOFORTE — CRISTOFORI — MARIUS — SCHROETER — EARLY LONDON PIANOFORTE-MAKERS — EROADWOOD'S IM- PROVEMENTS. From the first stages of civilization in which music appears, the invention and development of musical in- struments have always been governed b)' the progress of the art itself, as well as by the growth of the mechanical arts ; while music, in turn, grew in a distinct line with the evolution of the human mind toward a higher plane of intellectual and spiritual attainment. These three conditions cannot be disassociated. From the rude lyre of the ancients, which is the remote precursor of the initial pianoforte of Cristofori, up to the piano of the present day, is a huge step in human achievement, yet the growth of musical art in all its 14 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. phases, has a manifest bearing upon the aggregate re- sult meanwhile. Looking backward, the most distinct technical revolu- tions in instrument development noticeable are Guide's improvements in the organ keyboard and musical scale ; the introduction of the clavichord and other variations of that instrument ; the appearance of the virginal and spinet, followed by the harpsichord, which became the connecting link between the pianoforte, with its peculiar sound-producing mechanism, and the race of relative keyboard instruments briefly indicated in the foregoing. / The origin of the clavichord is involved in a haze of doubt and supposition. From general appearances it is probable that the Italians invented this instrument in the fourteenth century, Italy being at that period, and for several centuries following, the seat of European art activity. It was subsequently copied by the Belgians and Germans with special modifications. It continued to be used in Germany for many centuries on account of its extreme structural simplicity and low price. Writers say that in his first musical journeys Mozart played upon the clavichord, which formed part of his baggage. In England the virginal superseded the clavi- chord toward the fifteenth century. This instrument was an. emphatic step toward the piano. In it wire was substituted for gut, and 2. jack was introduced for the first time so as to facilitate a rude form of escapement. The spinet, which was similar in most respects with the virginal, made its appearance about the same period. In the latter the same action mechanism was used, the only difference being that the spinet was built like a harp and set down horizontally upon a frame-work, as exemplified THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFOliTE. 15 in the Rossi instrument illustrated elsewhere, at present in the possession of the South Kensington Museum, Lon- don. The virginal and spinet had but one string to each note, and the specimens now in existence have a key- board range not exceeding four octaves. The New York Museum of Art possesses valuable examples of these in- struments, purchased by the later Mr. Drexel, of Phila- delphia, in his European travels, and presented to the city archives. Toward the end of the sixteenth century the spinet and virginal were superseded by the harpsichord, which originated in Italy as early as the end of the fifteenth century. One example is illustrated here from the Lon- don South Kensington collection dated 1521. The harp- sichord anticipated our pianoforte grands in shape, as shown in the illustrations presented. In this instrument \h&jack of the spinet and virginal was adopted, with a little modification. Two strings of wire to each note here appeared, which was another step upward toward Cristofori's pianoforte. The most notable harpsichord- maker and inventor known was Hans Ruckers, of Ant- werp, one of whose instruments is among the Drexel col- lection in the Museum of Art. Handel always played upon Ruckers' instruments in preference to all others of his time, which is a sufficient guarantee of Ruckers' ability as a harpsichord-maker. Ruckers made many significant improvements in the instrument, assisted by his sons, John^nd Andrew, toward the seventeenth cen- tury, when he was famous throughout France and Ger- many. The Italians, although the initiators, only adopted the harpsichord about 1702, when Father Zanetti, a Venetian 1 6 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. priest, became noted for some innovations in the instru- ment, which gave it popularity. Crotone and Farini, two other celebrated Italian makers, later appeared. The latter substituted catgut for wire in the harpsichord, and gave the instrument ihe name oi c/avicfAenum. One Rigoli, of Florence, made vertical harpsichords, meanwhile, as earl}' as 1621, but met With little notice. A noted French maker turned up toward the end of the seventeenth cen- tury named Richard whose fame lives. Coming down more toward the invention of the piano, the names of Silbermann, Stein, Feronnard, Marius, Schobert, and Cristpfori must be introduced. These were all famous harpsichord-makers, representing Germany, France, and Italy, variously. Many of these became identified later on with the promotion of the pianoforte. A. J. Hipkins, at present of the celebrated firm of Broadwood & Company, London, one of our most emi- nent writers on piano history, supports the claim which gives Cristofori credit as the inventor of the piano, and places the date — after Rimbault— in 1709. Bartolommeo Cristofori, of Padua, the originator of the instrument, was eminently known as a harpsichord- maker and is included in the above group. That he accomplished this sigi^ficant achievement is shown. Rival claims have been set up from a remote period. Fetis puts forth Marius as the first to exhibit a piano- forte, but beyond proving that the latter admittedly clever French harpsichord-maker submitted several ham- mer- harpsichords to the Academy in Paris in 1716, noth- ing is advanced to disprove the claim that Cristofori preceded the former in the production of the first instru- ment of this kind. The Gkeen Clavichord. Eighteenth Century. Spinet by Pl.vyek. Smi/A Kerisinf/ton Museum London. ■Piano by CmhToroKi. a.d. 1726. KraiisJjuteym, Florence. THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. i? Moreover, Germany — placing the year at 1717 — claims the credit of the initial pianoforte for Schroeter, a child of the '^Fatherland," It has been decisively proved, however — taking these dates advanced in relation to Marius's and Schroeter's instruments as a basis for a computative estimate — that Cristofori produced his first instrument in 1709, the date assigned. In " The Piano- forte," by Rimbault, an historical work published by Cocks & Company, London, in i860, a tran"slation of an Italian document, written by the Marchese Scipione Maffei, a Florentian scholar, in 1711, is given in support of the fact that Bartolommeo Cristofori, of that city, ex- hibited four pianofortes in 1709, which statement was originally published in the Giornale in the year indicated, accompanied with a diagram of Cristofori's action prin- ciple. This leaves no doubt as to the latter's position in pianoforte history. Bartolommeo Cristofori was appointed custodian of the musical instruments of the Prince Ferdinand dei Medici, a Florentian noble, in 1708, and it was in the following year he exhibited his first instruments as designated. In Matfei's writings Cristofori's name is given as Cristo-- fali, but this is proved to have been an error, as Mr. Hipkins points out in his history, because inscriptions upon existing pianofortes of the former's make give the name of this clever man as Cristofori, which fact should forever end any discussion on the matter. Notwith- standing this, most writers still insist upon using the name Cristofali in this connection. The origin of the word pianoforte in musical instru- ment nomenclature is traced back to 1598, and is said to have originated with an Italian musical instrumeni- 2 l8 If/STORV OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. maker named Paliarino. In some correspondence of the latter, still preserved, dated in the above year, he speaks frequently of a musical instrument called //««(? ^ forte. Nothing is known, however, of the instrument referred to. Cristofori is the originator of the title by which the present " household orchestra," as some peo- ple style the piano, became known all over Europe. The title alone ought to be sufficient evidence as to the Italian extraction of the piano, notwithstanding that these terms given are everywhere recognized by musi- cians. It is said that Father Wood, an English monk, living at Rome, made a pianoforte similar to Cristofori's instru- ment in 1711. He brought it to England later, where it created a great sensation. Schroeter, mentioned as a claimant herein, made many improvements in the pianoforte in his time, and achieved a high place in later years in his business. He claimed to have made a pianoforte in 1717, in Dresden, without having heard anything of Cristofori's instrument, which, however, does not entitle him to priority even if his statements were proved substantially. Ghristoph Gott- lieb Schroeter was the son of an organist of some note. He was born on the borders of Bohemia. Schroeter was engaged throughout his life in conflicts with other rival makers of pianos and harpsichords, which fact gives rise to the impression that his original claim in connection with the first pianoforte grew from pure imagination. Schroeter's first pianoforte, exhibited in Dresden, caught the popular fancy and its fame spread. In a little time a host of imitators sprang up, among them being the celebrated Geoffrey Silbermann, of Strasburg, who THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 19 made Bach's favorite instrument ; Spaett, of Dresden, and Stein, of Augsburg, all of whom reached a high plane of eminence in the pianoforte manufacturing business in after years. Marius, the French maker, meanwhile made some improvements in his first pianofortes, which led to a French school of imitators, some of whom eclipsed their master in the production of these instru- ments. England through all these years contributed nothing of consequence to the development of the harpischord up to about the middle of the last century, when the Tschudis settled in London. Cristofori in the mean time had remedied many defects in his original action principle with valuable results. In the first instrument he exhibited, the idea of " escape- ment" had been skilfully worked out, but no means had been provided to check the escape of the hammer after it had struck the strings, which led to a rebound of the hammer. This was a serious difficulty in itself, but he finally overcame it. Thus it is depionstrated that he substantially anticipated the bottom principles of an im- proved action. There are several instruments of Cristo- fori's make in existence. Two in Florence, dated 1720 and J 726, show a perfect anticipation of " escapement" and hammer " checking." This great figure in piano- forte history died comparatively poor in 1731. Before he passed away he had accomplished many other valu- able improvements, such as strengthening and enlarging the case, and to a degree revolutionize'd the principles of construction throughout. Up to 1760 all instruments were made in the form of grands, until Zumpe, a German workman, originated 20 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. the familiar " square" in London. in that year. Fetis, who seemed to have had a particular love for disputing dates, claimed that one Frederici made " squares" several years earlier. This is of little consequence, however. Zumpe was a workman employed in the shop of Tschudi, the famous London harpsichord-maker, and afterward throughout his career exhibited great creative and inven- tive talent. Zumpe started in business in London on his own account, when he became famous throughout England and the Continent. His " damper" and action improvements led up to many valuable results in time. He amassed a large fortune during his life and died rich and famous. Previous to Zumpe's first achievement, pianoforte- making had been comparatively a failure in England. About 1760 a number of workmen settled in London, whose arrival has since come to be set down as an epoch of no small consequence in the manufacture of English pianofortes. These workmen were Germans and num- bered twelve, whereupon they became known as the " twelve apostles," which evangelistic title they earned in some years to come. Many of the descendants of these men have been identified with the early develop- ment of the American pianofbrte since that period, as shown in future chapters. Geib, Backers (Becker), and Landreth were among this group of men. Backers, who was properly a Dutchman, became associated in a marked degree with the English grand piano. He was the in- ventor of what was known as the English grand action, which has been handed down, with certain alterations, even to this time. The Broadwoods, of London, yet use it — in an improved form, however. Robert Stodart and THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 21 John Broadwood, two Scotch workmen, assisted Backers very materially in his technical schemes. John Broad- wood was the founder of the present London house. These two workmen were in the employ of Tschudi and were highly esteemed. Broadwood advanced so far in the estimation of Tschudi that he married the latter's daughter, becoming his partner and successor in the great business he had built up in the course of events. Toward 1790 Stodart, who had succeeded Backers, made significant improvements in the character of the English grand, which form of pianoforte the Stodart firm in subsequent years became noted for throughout England and the United States. Meanwhile John Broad- wood set to work in 1780 and made some revolutionary changes in the square by removing the pin-block or wrest-plank from the front to the back of the case, further making a perfectly unique adjustment of the scaling and stringing conditions, so as to meet the new order of con- struction. His success was so significant that he turned his attention toward promoting other radical changes, one of which was the extension of pianoforte compass in the keyboard. He now followed by introducing the damper and soft pedals. From these instances of ability given it can be seen that " Broadwood the First" was a worthy initiator of a famous name in connection with technical and acoustic progress in the British pianoforte. His breadth of mind in scientific directions is exemplified by the fact that he recognized, upon deliberation, that science had neces- sarily something to do with acoustic principles, and could be used toward the better development of the piano. Acting upon these convictions, he called in the 22 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. assistance of Cavallo and Dr. Grey, of the British Muse- um, and with the counsel and assistance of these emi- nent scientists the laws of " striking distance" in relation to hammer adjustment were laid down. These prin- ciples spread through the different London shops in a short time, and from thence the Continental piano-makers got an inkling of the mystery. Upon the force of Caval- lo' s and Dr. Grey's counsel Broad wood experimented, and in some time adopted his method of building the upper bridge so as to give the hammers the necessary scope to hit the strings at the most favorable point con- sistent with the best quality of tone. Broadwood's shop was regarded during these early years as a "house of mystery," and every new idea propagated technically was eagerly sought for and copied everywhere. Science, then, has played no small part in establishing the primary laws of pianoforte construction, not only in the acoustic department, but in the construction and bracing of the case, so as to make it capable of resisting extreme conditions of tension. About the beginning of this century the most noted makers of pianos in Europe were Stein, Stodart, Broad- wood, Pleyel, and Erard. Ignace Pleyel was born in Austria, in 1757. His en- trance upon this planet was eminently signalized by the circumstance that he was the twenty-fourth child born to his mother since her marriage to Martin Pleyel. But the good lady died soon after the birth of Ignace, where- upon the father of the celebrated piano-maker under notice married again and added fourteen children more to his previous record, thirty-eight in all, about thirty- five of whom lived and prospered. Pleyel became a THE ORmiN OP THE PIANOFORTE. 23 clever composer in after years, and rose to be chapel- master of Strasburg Cathedral. He settled in Paris about 1804, and drifted into the business of manufactur- ing pianos in a short time, where he turned his celebrity as a musician and composer to account. He rapidly became owner of one of the largest establishments in Europe. About 1835 his son Camile and his partner Kalkbrenner — well known as a musician — were control- ling the largest pianoforte trade, wholesale and retail, then in Europe. CHAPTER 11. The Origin of the Pianoforte. THE HOUSE OF ERARD PLEYEL — PAPE — MORE ABOUT ENG- LISH PIANOFORTE-MAKING— THE FIRST INTRODUCTION OF IRON — HAWKINS — COLLARDS — THE UPRIGHT PIANOFORTE — MARIUS — SOUTHWELL. The name of Erard is more historic than that of Pleyel. The founder of this celebrated house was Sebastian Erhardt, born in Strasburg in 1752, of German parents. At sixteen he settled in Paris, where he learned harpsi- chord-making. He dropped incidentally into the piano- forte business, and in collaboration with his brother Jean Batiste founded the house of Erard. Meanwhile young Erhardt had changed the exterior expression of his name to Erard, owing to the hostility felt during those years toward the Germans by the French. The French Revo- lution drove the Erards to London, where they carried on business for some time, but later returned to Paris. Sebastian Erard patented some harp improvements in 1794, which gave him some note. His well-known double action for the harp, which gave him special notoriety, was tnock patented \n 1808. This was really the invention of William Southwell, formerly of Dublin, who took out a o p s o a o 1-; H n THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 25 a patent for it in 1798 after moving to London. He said the invention to Erard in 1808 among other matters. Erard, acting under a private understanding with the former, made a show of registering the invention, with certain modifications, as his own, and thus achieved all the credit and profit of the patent. Sebastian Erard died in Paris in 1831 generally re- gretted. The Erards adopted Backers's English grand action for some time, until his famous Erard double es- capement grand action was brought out. This valuable innovation made the Erard grands famous throughout the musical world. This was patented by Pierre Erard, son of Sebastian, in 1821, at that time a partner of his father. A. J. Hipkins, in his article " Pianoforte," in the En- cyclopcedia Britannica, recalls an interesting circum- stance regarding this action, related as follows : When the British patent rights expired in 1835, the action had meantime created so much notice that Pierre Erard was anxious to have it protected for a new lease of time. In trying to effect this he carried the matter into the Eng- lish superior courts at enormous expense, and finally appealed to the House of Lords, which was considered a most extraordinary course under the circumstances. Having many influential friends among the British aris- tocracy and nobility, he was able to bring these factors to bear for personal purposes, for noble and " superior" people like to exercise their power just to assist a friend at any moral expense. In the Erard case, however, Pierre Erard was striving to attain an honest right. With the assistance of his noble friends he was able to obtain an extension of his patent. The Erards initiated 26 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. many improvements from 1800 up to 1840, apart from their improved grand action. One was their method of " bearing" for the strings. Their case-building schemes were also very significant factors in the improvement of the Erard pianoforte. The Erards claim — among many other important innovations — to have first introduced the shifting transposition action in the grand. From one of Foucaud's works published in Paris, in 1840, I learn that this invention was first tried upon a piano made for Marie Antoinette. Foucaud, however, only repeated what he learned directly from that firm. One Edward Riley patented the idea in London, in 1801, and this record is supposed to be the earliest publication of the transposition action principle in England. It has been recently reintroduced in London by several houses with much success. The Erards are credited with having first designed and applied the string " agraffe," but this — in its modern shape — Foucaud attributes to Pape. Pape comes to our notice at this juncture. It is a curious fact that the greatest French piano firms known were founded by natives of other European countries, not by Frenchmen. For instance, Pleyel was an Austrian, Erard a native of Strasburg, and properly a German, while Pape was born in Hanover. Jean Henri Pape saw the light in 1789. In 1809, when he was twenty years of age, he arrived in Paris, and in the fol- lowing year entered Pleyel's establishment as a work- man. Foucaud writes as follows in reference to Pape : " When he h"ad become a skilful workman, not yet satis- fied, he determined to travel outside of France and learn more. He turned toward England, for at that time — THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 27 1817 — our English neighbors enjoyed amarked superiority in their pianos," which is complimentary to England. On Pape's return to France from England he founded his own business house. M, Andes, writing of pianos and improvements in the Paris Musical Gazette for 1836, speaks at length of Pape's contributions to the develop- ment of the instrument, particularly of Pape's down- striking-action invention. Pape, it seems, exhibited his first piano built on this plan, with the action position above the strings, in 1827. This instrument was, it is scarcely necessary to remark, a horizontal piano. It was shown publicly in October of that year in Paris. Mean- while the inventor claimed to have worked upon the idea since the previous year. Thomas Loud, Jr., of Phila- delphia, however, took out a patent in Washington for a similar invention on May 15th, 1827, and clearly antici- pated the celebrated French maker under discussion in this direction, while evidence, moreover, is in existence which proves that Loud took the editor of the Franklin Institute Journal to his shop in Philadelphia in April, 1826, and there showed him the basis of his technical schemes in advance of the patent, which was only ap- plied for after Loud had woiked out his experiments to a satisfactory issue. Pape was the first to introduce felt in Europe, according to M. Andes, but Alpheus Bab- cock, of Boston, unquestionably preceded him in this "new departure," for the latter was granted a United States patent in 1833 for the introduction of this ham- mer-covering material in pianos, which was, however, not availed of for many years after. Pape's first pianos, with felt, came out in 1839 ; but he previously advocated its use in 1835. 28 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Pape invented a tuning-fork piano among his numer- ous experimental effects, which came to little. About 1838 he made some striking departures in the exterior structural plans of his instruments, which won him exten- sive notice. In this connection he exhibited a hexagonal and a cycloid piano. These improvements led up to no permanent reform, I may add. Pape was the first to in- troduce overstringing and iron bracing in French pianos unquestionably, and was altogether, taking him by the actual, aside from the experimental results, one of the greatest figures ever identified with the piano business in France. From the wording of a British patent granted to Pierre Frederick Fischer, merchant of Marlborough Street, London, in 1835, in which " overstringing" and the use and manufacture of woollen felt in relation to the piano are dealt with at considerable length in the speci- fication, it becomes clear that Pape was the inventor in the background hereabouts. Fischer claimed to have had these improvements " communicated to him from abroad," and was not personally concerned outside of a legal point. Now Pape issued a pamphlet, I find, about this period in which he mentions felt, and makes a hid- den allusion to a new method of stringing. On taking the wording and substance of both Pape's writings and Fischer's specification, side by side, it is almost apparent that Pape was Fischer's friend and the real person inter- ested in the patent referred to. Meantime Hipkins and all other authorities on the piano in England have over- looked Fischer in relation to " overstringing " Meanwhile I shall give a sketch of the first attempts to introduce metal into pianos as a case-strengthening and bracing agent and the authors. 7 HE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 29 This has an all-important bearing on the history of modern piano development, but more particularly on the American instrument as an individualized species. The first noteworthy application of iron to the piano was made by Joseph Smith, of London, in 1799, not for compensation or resistance purposes designedly, but merely to promote a scheme that the inventor had pat- ented in that year — October 3d — for introducing a tam- bourine, triangle, and other similar features into the in- strument. It was in relation to this cmv'xom^ pot-pourri oi acoustic effects — not by any means musical — that Smith happened to apply iron to the piano. Nothing came of Smith's scheme, need it be added. Prior to this, one Dr. Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, a Scotchman, exhibited a • harpsichord made with an iron frame. Mention of it is made remotely in a volume of " American Philosophical Transactions." Hopkinson was a medical doctor by profession, and from what I can learn an Edinburgh graduate. The instrument Hopkinson introduced the improvement referred to may have been a piano, as the description published is very misleading, and the writer evidently did not know the difference between a piano and a harpsichord, so as to distinguish either indi- vidually. Philadelphia was destined to be again more definitely and unmistakably identified with the permanent intro- duction of metal in the piano, as well as with the pro- duction of \.\\& first upright approximating to the present instrument in shape. The author of these improvements was an Englishman, John Isaac Hawkins, a civil engineer by profession, and necessarily a student of the nature and composition of metals, who had lived in Philadelphia 30 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. for many years prior to the events herewith outlined. Hawkins took out a United States patent dated February i2th, 1800, for an upright piano, entitled a " portable grand pianoforte," a drawing of which is given in these pages, in which metal was extensively used. The gen- eral features of this remarkable instrument are discussed in another chapter. Hawkins took out another distinct patent in Washington on October loth of the same year, for " improvements in the nature and construetion of musical instruments." Isaac Hawkins, his father, also secured the " rights and privileges" of a British patent in the same year. Hawkins's pianos had little value musically. The inventor displayed special ability mainly in the ingenuity of his action, general novelty of the case, and his method of slinging the belly within an in- dependent iron frame, as reviewed later. In these re- sults sketched in the foregoing, Hawkins's peculiar re- lation to piano improvement is exemplified. However, not being formally a piano-maker, he failed from the practical standpoint to produce a permanent and positive improvement there and then. The examples he fur- nished his successors as to the use of iron, and econo- mizing of space in piano construction have nevertheless been invaluable. The next striking introduction of iron in piano structure occurs in 1820. To turn to the origin of the firm of Collard & CoUard, an eminent house still in existence, I may point out that, owing to its connection from 1827 upward with James Stewart, originally a partner of Jonas Chickering in Boston, Collard & Collard's piano history has been some- what moulded by American influences — that is, to the extent that Stewart, who was for upward of thirty-five THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 31 years foreman in that eminent shop, all along tried to copy American ideas, as they evolved, into these instru- ments and occasionally in details successfully managed to overcome the natural conservatism of his employers in this respect, with effective results always, as could be exemplified. Take in this connection the Collard & Col- lard improved square after the American lines, which up to a recent date was exceedingly popular in England. This was a specialty particularly known as " Collardian," so to speak, among musical people. Stewart's hand can be traced in these improvements. The house of Collard was founded originally in 1800 by Clementi, the celebrated pianist and composer, in col- laboration with Frederick W. Collard, a practical student of pianoforte building. Clementi had previously been connected with the firm of Longman & Lakey, but trans- ferred his name and influence over to Collard in the year given. This new establishment soon sprang into promi- nence owing to dementi's great drawing influence as a friend of the leading people of the period. In some time Clementi dropped out, the house subsequently passing through some titular changes. The present combination name of Collard & Collard appeared in due time and became a household word in Great Britain and Ireland. F. W. Collard made many notable progressions in his methods of construction after starting in business, which helped to build up the reputation of the instrument. In 1826 James Stewart arrived from Boston, Mass. He car- ried two pianofortes across, such as those bearing the inscription of Stewart & Chickering, and their 'general excellence, taken in relation to Stewart as a part maker, was such a manifest proof of Stewart's ability, that he 32 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. was thereupon engaged by the Collard firm to ^icotne foreman of their eminent shop. f Apart from names of firms given, many small places came into existence from 1780 upward in London, Paris, Dublin, Vienna, Florence, Berlin, and a multiplicity of sniall German, Austrian, and Italian cities too numerous to particularize. Among the London names were Geib, Loud, Davis, and many others familiar in early New York and Philadelphia records of piano-making. Thus a distinct relationship exists between these phases of English and early American history. The upright, owing to its neat appearance and porta- ble character, as well as its tone possibilities, is the favor- ite instrument with the masses at present in all countries where the piano is used. Therefore it deserves special notice here. The abstract exterior form of the upright piano, as distinguished from horizontal instruments, is not by any means the materialization of a modern idea, for harpsi- chords were made upon this plan two centuries ago. Even Marius, the French rival of Cristofori, submitted a crude upright piano among the three instruments ex- amined by the Paris Acad^mie des Sciences in February, 1716. In the " Recueil des Instruments Approuves par I'Acaddmie des Sciences," published in that year, en- graved plans of Marius's three clavecins h maillets are given, with explanations. Two of these instruments were horizontal in position, while the third harpsichord a maillei — which was the name Marius gave his invention — was a. -vertical one, in which the key impelled a rod furnished with the hammer directly upon the string. Nothing came from this example, however. I may add KorSSI .SPIXET. blXTEEXTII t'E^iTLKY. Soiilh Kejisinrjton Mmmm, London. SiLBEKMANN GhAND PtAKO. A.D. 174(i. ' Fr(nn the oHginal used by J. N. Bach In the Town Pal. we, rolsdam. THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 33 that this fact has been little commented upon in other histories. Many attempts were mad? subsequently in Germany, Italy, France, and England to produce an upright piano by placing a square or grand on end or otherwise, so as to attain the results indicated. John Landreth per- formed the feat in 1787 by altering the position of a grand, and fitting it out with a special action, but his scheme proved a failure in the aggregate. Pardio, of Venice, about this year tried- a similar idea, with the same results. Stodart, of London, in 1795 invented an upright in the form of a bookcase, which came still closer to our pres- ent style of instrument in design, but it ended where it began. Hawkins' instrument in 1800 was the first meritorious anticipation of our present upright, but it was proved in a short time to be of little account from the standpoint of utility. CHAPTER III. The Origin of the Pianoforte. Southwell's UPRIGHTS— HIS action — Southwell's " cabi- net " — wornum's important developments in action mechanism — timothy gilbert, of boston — chickering —ALLEN & THOM'S METAL FRAMES — STEWART'S PATENT — BROADWOOD's HITCH-PIN PLATE — MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Previous to Stodart and Hawkins's attempts William Southwell, of Dublin, the subsequent inventor of the popular " cabinet," placed a grand on end in 1794, and to this experimental instrument he applied a special upright action principle which, although imperfect just then, ended in the production of his cabinet in 1807. Southwell moved from Great Marlborough Street, Dub- lin, in that year, to London, where he lived for many years. Southwell's upright grand was exhibited in London in the year signified, and attracted so much attention that the great composer Haydn, then visiting the Eng- lish metropolis, called at Southwell's shop in Lad Lane and expressed himself delighted with the new field this THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFOR TE. 35 instrument outlined in piano-case structure, besides praising the musical results attained. In this instrument Southwell exhibited for a positive certainty a compass of six octaves. In his patent, taken out on October i8th of that year — 1794, the words " ad- dition of treble keys," which occur in the opening of the specification, refer to this innovation Southwell's new range exemplified in this piano ran from F to F. The instrument was found incapable of standing' the enforced tension resulting from this extension of compass, and, therefore, was practically of little account, Broadwood, meanwhile, learning of Haydn's distin- guished interest in Southwell's schemes — a part of which was the latter' s extension of compass in the keyboard — launched forth an instrument with six octaves, C to C, having a more decided value from a musical standpoint. This " scale," therefore, became generally copied all over the Continent. Southwell's upright grand having been discarded for many reasons, this very clever man kept steadily at his ultimate purpose, and in 1798 produced a more con- venient form of upright by placing a square on the side. To this he also applied a more perfected model of the action- applied in his grand. This piano is illustrated in- these pages from an instrument in the possession of W. Simpson, Esq., of Dundee, Scotland, thanks to Mr. A. J. Hipkins' historical work, in which it originally ap- peared. This piano was patented on November 8th of the year indicated. In 1802 Thomas Loud, of London, produced an upright that, according to the specification of his patent on this instrument, was the real precursor in build and general 36 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. characteristics of the perfected instrument of our time, but it is not known if Loud ever carried out his plans to a logical issue in London. Southwell now came out in 1807 with his "cabinet," which he patented on April 8th. This was a bona fide musical instrument, not a mere experiment in upright-case structure, and aside from its many obvious faults won praise from all sides. I have no hesitation in claiming Southwell to have been the real inventor of the upright pianoforte at this junc- ture. It is shown that he persistently followed out the idea of an upright for fourteen or more years, and ended by producing the y^rj-/ instrument of that character, out of which all subsequent uprights sprang. In this initial cabinet he succeeded in producing the first compara- tively successful " scale" ever applied to the upright. Hawkins and his other rivals failed here. Moreover, Southwell introduced the first workable form of upright action ever seen up to that date, and passed all competi- toi's in this respect. His method of case-building and the general characteristics of his instrument, in short, externally as well as internally, furnished the parent model upright out of which all other more improved in- struments of that family have descended. Southwell's cabinet pianoforte was unquestionably — with all its ad- mitted imperfections — the most significant innovation produced in connection with the development of the in- strument for over forty years, and was the outcome — as I have tried to show — of many years of earnest effort and experiment. Southwell took out another patent in i8ii for improvements, in this instrument of a many-sided kind, in which the action and other component features of the instrument are included. THE ORIGIN OF THE PMNOFORTE. 37 Robert Wornum, a great figure in subsequent years, was granted his first patent in March, 1811, for an " im- proved upright with diagonal strings." This was a radi- cal departure from, and an improvement on Southwell's piano. Wornu-m hereabouts becomes the connecting link. This instrument was known as Wornum's har- monic pianofort*. In this mode! the extreme height of the cabinet was reduced to about four feet six inches. This became the English cottage piano in after years. In 1826 Wornum produced his " piccolo" upright, being a reduced model of his first piano, thereby bringing the height down to three feet six inches. In this year he also patented a pezzicato pedal, also one " hopper" and two check actions. In the two models of uprights al- luded to — produced in 181 1 and 1826, respectively — Wor- num exhibited a special action principle of much value, which attracted little attention in England. Pleyel, of Paris, however, took up one of these action schemes, slightly altered and fathered it, whereupon it became known as the French action. About -this period of the present century the United States had grown past childhood and was beginning to crawl along at a lively pace. Before 1826 I find that Wornum had been anticipated in his " piccolo" upright in this country by Loud & Brothers, of Philadelphia, and more than that, his last action was already almost developed and in use here. Uprights, however, never grew into popular favor in this country at that remote period. Wornum produced his celebrated " tape-check" action in 1843, which was a surpassingly important con- tribution to the piano. This action, with some improvements added in this 38 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. country, has for years been used universally. Timothy Gilbert, of Boston, in 1841 brought out an upright action somewhat similar to Wornum's, minus the " tape check," which contained many ingenious features in anticipation of the former. This action of Gilbert's was furnished with a patent contrivance of value for assisting the quick return of the hammer, as well as with » novel " check" screwed into the " jack rocker" in the present way ; and, taken altogether, Gilbert's action deserves special notice. What became oi it, however, may be surmised. Jonas Chickering adopted the "tape-check" action in his up- rights after its publication in England for some time, with certain modifications, but public interest in the upright soon died out about this period, owing to the rapid improvement taking place in squares, hence it was found a waste of time to pay much attention to uprights. Wornum's " tape-check" action has become the reign- ing favorite in several European countries, but Great Britain has never taken kindly to it. Past 1811 Southwell took out several-other patents for details in pianoforte improvement, but never became identified with any of these innovations to a notable degree. His fame rested solely, meanwhile, upon the " cabinet." Southwell died in the " forties" at an ad- vanced age at Rathmines, a suburb of Dublin, in which city he was born, and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. In devoting so much serious effort to the work of this eminent man in this chapter, the task is inspired by a conviction that his real place in English piano history has never been properly estimated or yet examined for obvious reasons. In helping to call attention to South- THE OKIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 39 well's real connection with the upright, the writer be- lieves he is performing a duty due to Southwell's genius and life-work, and thereby hopes to perpetuate his name to some extent. Southwell's family have given many eminent people to the early American stage, let me add, among them— being Henry and Maria Southwell, both of Dublin, familiar names years ago. In relation to Thomas Loud's upright piano, patented in 1802, I wish to point to the fact that Loud's specifica- tion contains in text a distinct anticipation of " over- stringing." It is exemplified in these words: "Upright pianos rendered portable by placing the strings in an oblique direction, fixing the first bass strings from the left-hand upper corner to the right-hand lower corner behind the sounding-board, and the rest of the strings in a parallel direction. By this means an instrument standing five feet high and four feet wide will admit of the bass strings being their full length, which is five feet two inches." Mr. Hipkins alludes to this patent of Loud's in these words, in his history : " Thomas Loud patented a diag- onal upright pianoforte in 1802." Here he dismisses the subject. There is nothing in Loud's specification when read correctly to convey any such impression. At the same time a " diagonal pianoforte" is in every sense an unknown quantity. Loud, moreover, inserts the subjoined words in refer- ence to his new pianoforte model : " The body of the case does not as usual stand on a frame, but goes down to the floor and stands on its own base, which affords the opportunity that is embraced to carry or put the sound- 40 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. ing-board and strings thus low." The specification, if re-, produced in full, would furnish unmistakable evidence sufficient to satisfy any reader who is acquainted with the outside details of piano construction, that Loud meant " overstringing" in this patent in connection with • his portable upright. Thomas Loud becomes of much significance personally to American readers, because he emigrated to New York in after years, where he died in 1834. He built " piccolo" uprights, with bass overstringing, in this city, meanwhile, as early as 1830, at least, or even earlier. Loud's appli- cation of the innovation was very crude, and probably only tested upon a few instruments, but they alone place him in a very conspicuous position in British-American piano history. The British patent, taken out by Loud in 1802, therefore, had clear reference to this important method of stringing under notice. The celebrated Louds, of Philadelphia, spoken of in that chapter, were either nephews or children of this clever piano-maker. The patent here quoted was unfortunately entered in the British Patent Office without drawings, otherwise there would have been no room left for doubts or disputes, Following out this method of stringing somewhat fur- ther, it was generally accepted for many years by all authorities in England that the first person to introduce "overstringing" there was J. Goodwin, of London. He took out a patent for this stringing system on March 8th, 1836, and for many years practised it. On March zd, of the same year, Isaac Clark, of Cincinnati, O., was granted a United States piano patent of a general nature, in which overstringing is included, which precedes Good- win by about six days. If the latter happened to be the THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 4 1 English initiator of the aforesaid reform really — apart from Loud — Clark's patent would discount him very materially ; but it has recently been asserted that Geroek, of Cornhill, London, made an overstrung cottage and a similar square, in 1835, for Theobald Boehm, the cele- brated rflaker of flutes, after the latters designs. A. J. Hipkins brought this discovery forward a few years ago as something singularly important, backed up by a fair show of proof, yet for years Fischer's plan of an over- strung upright, almost identical with the present style, could have been found on " sheet 2" of the official draw- ings accompanying this patent in the British Patent Office, dated May 13th, 1835. Meanwhile Loud made overstrung " piccolo" uprights in New York long before this year — ^whether experi- mentally or for regular sale cannot be learned — while John Jardine, of the celebrated family of that name, exhibited squares, which gives the United States priority in this respect, even though the two makers named were orig- inally Britons, one English the other evidently Scotch. Notwithstanding this circumstance America is entitled to the honor of the achievement pointed out, because it is a well demonstrated fact, although, perhaps, a subtlety, that the social and governmental institutions of this country, in so far as they promote mental freedom, have a stimulating and immediate influence upon the inven- tive faculties of persons brought up in Europe and set- tling here. Continuing the subject of metal in piano development from a previous chapter, the first notable European pat- ent or invention produced, after Hawkins' " portable upright iron frame grands," was Allen & Thorn's system 42 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. of metal tube and plate bracing patented in 1820. Will- iam Allen was the theoretical inventor of the idea, but James Thom, or Thorns, the foreman at Stodart's, put the invention into practical shape. Allen was a tuner engaged in this concern meanwhile. Like Thom he, too, was a Scotchman. Allen & Thorn's invention consisted of a number of metal tubes resting in metal sockets cast in plates, which were attached to the wrest-plank and to the block on which the strings were hitched. The results which accom- panied the introduction of the patent were so significant that the Stodarts secured it. Broadwood and Erard now followed out this principle somewhat in some small im- provements introduced between 1820 and 1823, which gave a further impetus to the use of metal in the piano- forte. Pleyel, of Paris, in 1826, carried the idea further still, and exhibited in that year a grand having a regular network of small iron bars, crossing and recrossing, which were braced against the side of the instrument. This was no doubt suggested by Allen & Thorn's inven- tion, then in general adoption in Stodart's instruments. Pleyel's method did not survive, however, and little can be learned of it at present. Samuel Herve is credited with having invented the fixed string pin-plate in 1821. Hipkins states that the Broadwoods applied it to squares in 1822 with effective results. Francis Melville, of Glasgow, Scotland, was granted a patent for metallic tubular bracing in 1825, which was designed evidently to be an improvement on Allen & Thom's invention, but nothing is known as to its outcome. In 1827 James Stewart was granted a patent for his THE ORIGIN OF THE PIANOFORTE. 43 method of stringing " without having loops or eyes in single strings, by making one continuous string pass round a single hitch-pin." This principle became copied alrtiost universally in a few years after this date all through Europe. Stewart had previously arrived in London from this country, where he was well known as the first partner of Jonas Chickering. The idea of stringing, formulated in this patent by Stewart, was car- ried over from Boston, where it was commonly known as early as 1820. James Shudi Broadwood took out another patent in this year for a metal string plate for grands, which became a permanent feature of the Broadwood instru- ments for several years, until such time as a better form of plate took its place. William Allen was granted another patent in 1832 for a plate with tension-resistance and " compensating" im- provements cast in one piece, the first of the kind ever introduced in Europe. This was palpably a copy of Alpheus Babcock's metal plate patented December 17th, 1825, in the United States Patent Office, which Hipkins has very impartially always alluded to in connection with the introduction of the metal plate in one casting. The latter authority, however, is in error as to the real nature and extent of Babcock's patent, as shown in an- other section. Allen could have learned in London through Stewart, directly or indirectly, of Babcock's in- vention, for Stewart, no doubt, saw or learned of Bab- cock's iron frame pianos before he left Boston for Eng- land. At the same time. Allen may have conceived the basis of this invention without any exterior suggestions, as he did in his former patent. Babcock, of Boston, 44 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. however, preceded him in this very important develop- ment. Miscellaneous European pianoforte improvements were patented in the interregnum between the last date — 1832 — and the beginning of the century, of a nature too gen- eral and detailed to be included in these chapters. They do not always concern American pianoforte history directly, and are, therefore, in the abstract superfluous. The development of the pianoforte in Europe from this period upward becomes a matter of special history, and is entirely outside the scope of this work, unless in ex- ceptional cases where points of comparison are made between special American and European improvements. The technical and musical relationship of European and American instruments is, meantime, perfectly apparent. CHAPTER IV. Boston. A SPINET IN 1770 — REVOLUTIONARY PIANOFORTES — VON HAGEN — FIRST PIANOFORTES CREHORE APPLETON — OSBORN — STEWART. The historic city of Boston has for many years been credited with being the first place in which pianofortes were made on this continent. Although this is proved in a later chapter to be a fallacy, Boston still deserves precedence in this work, because it has in the past stood forth in the relation of a national school to the piano art business in this country. The American pianoforte de- serves that distinctive title just as legitimately as the reed organ or harmonium, which in the abstract, like the piano, derived from Europe, is entitled to be known as the American organ, because in both cases these in- struments are constructed in many particulars somewhat different to French, German, or English organs and pianos. Boston has been a national school, as I have observed, because some of the most distinctive features in the American piano, as it is to-day, originated there in part. Readers must take this in the broad sense. 46 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFOKTE. First, there is the application of metal to the pianoforte, without which the modern methods of overstringing and enlarged resonating possibilities of the sounding-board, which result to some extent from the larger capacity of the case, would be impossible. To Boston, coupled with the names of Alpheus Babcock and Jonas Chickering, we owe the first successful and permanent introduction of metal plates into squares and grands. Timothy Gilbert, another Bostonian, also anticipated the present upright action in use throughout this country, and bequeathed to the trade many very potent technical ideas in connec- tion with the improvement and development of the up- right piano. Jonas Chickering was incontrovertibly the first to strike out from the traditional methods which piano-makers at first trod in relation to the building of cases, for having of necessity studied the question of re- sistance plus tension, while developing his square and grand metal plates, he saw that the American pianoforte of the future would be large in body, therefore endowed with greater resonating facilities and tone-producing power. The whole cast metal plate was the key to these conditions, and no unprejudiced person, standing on the ground of the technical historian, while gazing over the whole field of pianoforte development in this country, can take away from Jonas Chickering the credit of being the initiator practically of the significant innovations which are here coupled with his name, and these are linked un- questionably with the nationalization of the American pianoforte. The United States Patent Office offers sufficient testi- mony on this point, as witness the official plates given. Opening with this plea for Boston, as the school from BOSTON. 47 .which the most significaiit technical and acoustic traits of our instruments have been derived primarily, let me now proceed to sketch its history in connection with the subject of this work. The first mention 1 find of anything approaching the making of pianos in Boston during the end of the last century, is a notice published in the Boston Gazette, Feb- ruary, 1770, which speaks of an " excellent spinet," that had just been finished by a resident of the city, " which, for goodness of workmanship and harmony of sound, is esteemed by the best judges to be superior to any that has been imported from Europe." The State of Massa- chusetts, however, apart from the " Hub," may be cred- ited with having produced the first violins made in this country — assuming that an allusion to other musical in- struments in this remote historical connection is permis- sible — and Salem has long been spoken of as the place in which the earliest organ known in this country was set up. John Clark built the organ alluded to in 1743 for the Episcopal church of that town. This fact is gleaned from " Felt's Annals of Salem." The Pennsyl- vania Historical Society, however, has furnished me with authentic information regarding early organ-building in that State, which advances a strong claim that one Mat- thias Zimmerman built an organ in Philadelphia before 1737, for his will was probated in that year, and in it he bequeaths his organ to his nephew, hoping that he would learn to play on it, further adding, " If not, it can be sold, owing to its being so much of a curiosity." Philadelphia also anticipated Boston in the matter of producing spinets, for a Swedish organ-builder named Gustavus Hesselins, made these instruments there as 48 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. early as 1742, as a matter of absolute fact. Hesselins. furthermore preceded Broomfield and others in the build- ing of organs, as I have indicated, aside from Zimmer- man altogether. Ed. Broomfield, Jr., erected a large organ in Boston in 1745, and later on essayed to make harpsichords, of which no particulars can be ascertained. Of pianofortes, the first reference that comes to hand is curiously enough truly historic, for I learn that the famous continental privateering frigate " Boston," sailed by the intrepid Captain Tucker, brought a British mer- chant ship as a prize into port in 1779, whereupon the cargo was sold for the benefit of the' National Treasury, and among the general booty put up for sale " a London- made pianoforte" was included, also flutes, harpsichord wire and tools. The ship was bound for New York, then occupied by the British, and carrying a general cargo of necessaries intended for the continental market ; for British merchants naturally put personal gains above mere party feeling of the time, and continued to ship goods to every port available. After the battle of Lexington had been fought, mean- while, frequent advertisements appeared in the patriot press of Boston and the Slate regarding flutes and drums for martial purposes. This allusion, while itdiverges from the subject of pianofortes, will no doubt be admissible at this point, because it throws light upon a picturesque phase of American musical history. And let me here say, that " the musical" market at this period in Boston was made up mostly of consignments of these common- place musical instruments. To our nineteenth-century mental palates the idea of rudely-uniformed soldiers 2 4 o s o *i < i BOSTON. 49 marching to battle without the accompaniment of a niod- ern military band, and in its stead a few shrill fifes and noisy drums, may provoke a certain amount of ridicule, but let us not forget that the men of the Revolution did " passing well" under the circumstances. Without them and their rude musical, as well as d)'-namic accoutrements of warfare, the words American pianoforte, American musical art, or similar phrasps, applied in the nationalist, though not necessarily insular sense, would scarcely be known to-day, for nationalism in art or life cannot exist without freedom, and this boon the patriot soldiers of the Revolution bequeathed to the race. Passing over the Revolutionary epoch, I find that the pianoforte, toward 1790, superseded the harpsichord in the drawing-rooms of those rich Boston families that aimed at personally simulating, if not at really promot- ing an appreciation of musical art. According to a newspaper extract of 1791 there were upward of twenty- seven pianofortes to be found in the houses of rich Bos- ton merchants and " esquires" throughout the whole city. These instruments were all London-made instru- ments, and were imported by general merchants along with other goods of a miscellaneous character from time to time since 1786, as explained incidentally in relation to early pianoforte importations in the New York chap- ters. Marquis de Chastellux, referred to elsewhere, saw pianofortes in Boston drawing-rooms as early as 1780, which fact he noted with astonishment. Boston had two harpsichord and piano teachers in 1789, one of whom officiated as tuner and general re- pairer. About 179s Peter A. von Hagen came to Boston from New York, and located there permanently, having 4 50 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. been appointed in a short time musical conductor in the Federal Street Theatre. On his arrival in Boston his card announced that he was prepared to teach the piano forte or harpsichord according to the best London meth- ods, adding the words, " Repairing and tuning of these instruments attended to with skill." Von Hageii be- comes a significant figure presently. The first mention 1 discover of the latter is in Ireland's Annals of the New York Stage. Here it is mentioned that in October, 1792, Mrs. Mechler (formerly Miss Storer, a very popular English singer and actress in New York prior to the war), who had long been absent from the local stage, appeared at a concert in Corre's Hotel in conjunction with Mr. and Mrs. von Hagen, recently from London. Von Hagen published the first copy of his Musical Magazine in December, 1797, from his ad- dress, 3 Cornhill, Boston, where he sold music imported from London, and in 1800 the Boston city directory gave his name in connection with the same house num- ber and street. Regarding the initial manufacture of pianos in Boston, it has long been generally accepted that the first instru- ments made there, were made by Benjamin Crehore, of Milton, a suburb of that city, some time around 1798- 1800. These dates have hitherto been published and circulated as the probable period in which the first piano was made, not only in Boston but in this country. This latter feature of discussion shall be reserved. No specific or authoritative dates have ever been advanced in con- nection with Crehore's first instrument, or no proof can be traced in the directory or through such a source. Thomas Appleton, the organ-builder, who knew Crehore boston: si and all the circumstances of his history, wrote a sketch before he died, so as to throw light upon this phase of musical instrument development here, which appeared in conjunction with several others concerning pianoforte history in the American Musician in 1887, but gave noth- ing of importance regarding Crehore in this connection. Appleton wrote the statement referred to in 1871. Many absurd and glamorous accounts have been pub- lished, from time to time, by way of illustrating how Crehore became connected with pianoforte-making. One foolish story tells us how he first repaired a violin for Von Hagen, when the idea of making pianos suggested itself to him. Another tale has it that he put glue in the crack of a harpsichord sounding-board in 1797, where- upon he became so inflated with the awful success of his attempt as a harpsichord repairer that he began to make pianos. All these stories are unjust to Benjamin Crehore. The facts are these, that Crehore was, as far back as 1791 well known in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia as a maker of violins, 'cellos, and other instruments of that family, besides guitars, drums, and flutes. In 1792 he exhibited a harpsichord, with improvements suggested by the pianoforte, and from this date forward became known as a repairer of these instruments from the me- chanical standpoint. His name also occurs in Annals of the Boston Stage, for he became well known as a stage carpenter and general expert around the Federal Street Theatre in 1797. He evidently became acquainted with Von Hagen about this time, and shortly afterward began his initial attempt at piano-making proper ; or, he may have made his first pianoforte still earlier. From Von Hagen's subsequent relations with him, however, it is 52 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. probable that Von Hagen was connected with the pro- duction of Crehore's initial instrument. Von Hagen was an excellent musician and posed as a tuner in his time. Crehore, being in no sense capable of reproducing the acoustic features of a pianoforte solus, he had some assist- ant clearly to attend to this department as well as th"e tuning, and Von Hagen was the man. Von Hagen, in 1801, sold Crehore's pianofortes in his store on Common Street in conjunction with imported instruments, and continued in actual partnership with him up to 1807. In the interregnum Von Hagen had his pianoforte warerooms also on Essex Street after 1805. Crehore through all this time still assisted, on and off, at stage- carpenier work in the Federal Street Theatre. Crehore was not the only person in the mean time that made pianos in Boston. I find in the city directory for 1798 the names of " Bent & Green, musical instrument makers, 90 New- bury Street." In 1800 the name of Green disappears and " William & Adam Bent, musical instrument makers, 26 Orange Street," appears in the directory, and con- tinues at this address up to 1807, when " William Bent, pianoforte-maker, 24 Orange Street," comes to light. In 1809 he appears for the last time at 49 Newbury Street. Appleton stated that he visited the shop of the Bents as early as 1803, when they were then making pianos. "Their place," he says, " was on Winter Street, near Washington, when I became acquainted with them." They never appear on this street in the city directory, but it is possible that the Bents made a stray pianoforte as early as 1800, or, indeed, it is probable, and almost BOSTON. 53 certain, judging from the wording of a vague press notice of that year, that William Bent was the "expert me- chanic" whose " new grand pianoforte" created so much attention in 1799 in Boston. This could not refer to Crehore, for it spoke of the workshop-of this expert as being situated in the rear of Newbury Street. Crehore, meanwhile, had his shop in Milton, as far as can be ascer- tained. If this theory is incorrect, then Crehore must have been the maker of this pianoforte referred to. The Bents went out of business in 1809. In Appleton's words : " William Bent invented the first leather-split- ting machine, got a patent on it, and went to Philadel- phia, where he carried on a leather business. Adam also retired from business and became a land speculator in South Boston." In the Columbia Sentinel, from which many incidental items have been gleaned for these pages, I find the fol- lowing notice in 1805 : " Mr. Mallet keeps constantly on hand and for sale at his musical repository, Devonshire Street, a handsome assortment of pianofortes, English and American." This was a newcomer in the field. The matter-of-fact way in which the word American is used here seems to indicate that there were many makers of these instruments in Boston at the period. Although frequent notices of this nature appear still earlier, there was always a sort of atmosphere surrounding these an- nouncements, which indicated that those who could afford to purchase pianos had doubts as to the reliableness of American-made instruments, and this circumstance in- fluenced the policy of Von Hagen and other advertisers. Mallet's card, however, has a ring of independence about it, as shown. Mallet sold Shaw's pianos about the year 54 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. named. Francis Shaw was another maker, who came to Boston about 1804 from New York. He began in this year to make pianos on Chambers Street. A Gazette announcement speaks, in 1804, of the arrival in Boston of an expert pianoforte and musical instrument maker from London. Shaw, however, seems to have lived for a few years in New York before turning up in the " Hub." Shaw holds a significant place in early Bos- ton records, for he took out the first patent relating to improvements in pianofortes, or to musical instru- ments of any kind, ever granted by the National Govern- rrient to a resident of Massachusetts. This patent was issued on July 2d, 1806. Beyond the fact that several of Shaw's pianos are said to be in existence, little is known of his subsequent career. Professor von Hagen had pianoforte warerooms on Essex Street up to 1808, when he retired from business and devoted himself exclusively to his professional duties. Benjamin Crehore, who undoubtedly is entitled to the honor of being considered the first maker of piano- fortes in Massachusetts, survived the Bents. His work- shop in Milton was the training school for such bright lights in our history as John Osborn and the two Bab- cock brothers, Lewis and Alpheus. The latter was taught tuning by Von Hagen, and after 1805 made this a specialty. Crehore made, probably, not more than ten or twelve pianos every year, and these he could dispose of — owing to native prejudice against this class of home-made luxuries among the exclusive people who alone possessed pianos in those days — only through Von Hagen' s influence as a teacher of music. It is said that Crehore put the imprint of London and Paris on his in- BOSTON. 55 siruments so as to sell them. This is entirely probable and natural. One thing must not be- forgotten at this juncture, and it is that without a tariff on pianos at that time Crehore or any other native workman could not compete with the London and Paris workmen for ob- vious reasons. In 1810 the Babcocks began making pianofortes in a smalls workshop at 44-^ Newbury Street, Boston. In 1813 Thomas Appleton, already quoted, was taken into partnership by the Babcock Brothers for the purpose of combining pipe-organ manufacturing with pianos, Ap- pleton hieing the organ specialist of the trio. Crehore at this time turns up as a journeyman piano-maker in the shop of Appleton & Babcock Brothers, having en- tirely failed on his own responsibility some time previ- ously. Mallet and Shaw were accidentally responsible for this circumstance, owing to their successful com- petition. Crehore, no doubt, after leaving Von Hagen, weighted down by the disadvantage of living in a sub- urban village and having little facilities, financially or otherwise, for promoting success, got crowded out in the race, not a dishonorable finale by any means, for many clever men in all pursuits have come to this end. Hence, it is, why we find him working in the shop of Appleton & Babcock Brothers in his old age. Crehore did not live in vain by any means. His name deserves an emphatic place in this history, because his shop, humble though it was, and entirely bare of techni- cal examples of any value, brought forth Osborn and Alpheus Babcock. I have elsewhere issued eulogies in this connection. Crehore was born in Milton, of Gaelic stock, evidently Scotch-Irish, as his name denotes, and 56 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. died in his native village in 1819, after a useful life, poor and forgotten. In 1815 the Babcoc's and Appleton, then at 18 Winter Street, were joined by the Hoyts Brothers, who for many years had been importers of small musical goods and cheap pianos from Europe, when the firm of Hoyts, Bab- cock & Appleton was started. Presently they moved to a large building on Milk Street, said to be the site of Franklin's birthplace, where they carried on business until the great commercial panic and general business depression of 1819, said to result from lowering the sea- board tariff, visited the country, which affected them so materially that they had to separate. Lewis Babcock, previous to this event, died in 1817, in Milton. The Hoyts dropped out of sight in 1819. Thomas Appleton returned to organ building on his own account, opening his shop at the back of 19' Marlborough Street in that year. Many organs yet exist as examples of the latter's professional skill. Alpheus Babcock comes to light in the city directory for 1821 at II Marlborough Street. In 1822 he moved to Parkanan's Market, Cambridge Street, where he car- ried on business with John Mackay, whose name occurs further on in conjunction with that of Jonas Chickering. It was about this period that Babcock originated his famous metal plate for squares, which is illustrated in these pages. John Dwight, a pupil of John Osborn, yet anticipated him somewhat in a " longitudinal metal bar," which, no doubt, furnished Babcock with the cue to his plate scheme. John Osborn — to return — one of Crehore's cleverest apprentices, as his subsequent career proved, began busi- :^-5i-- - BOSTON. 57 ness for himself in 1815 at " back of 3 Newbury Street." He became immediately noted for the superiority of his pianos, and in 1819 succeeded in introducing his instru- ments into general notice in New York and Philadelphia. Stray allusions to Osborn, about 1820-24, in occasional items in the Boston and New York papers, indicate that he was ranked as the very best piano-maker in the country. In 1819 he moved to Orange Street, where he had in his shop as apprentices such subsequently eminent men as Jonas Chickering, Lemanuel and Timothy Gilbert, and less significant people, such — measured by results — as William Danforth, John Dwight, and Elijah Bullard. James Stewart, a Scotchman, who emigrated to Balti- more in 1812 and learned piano-making of the Harpers in that city, where he carried on business until ruined by the industrial panic of 1819, came to Boston in 1820, where he became a partner of Osborn' s. Stewart, ac- cording to Baltimore records, stood very high in the South as a maker, and has the honor of being very prob- ably the first manufacturer to export pianofortes out of the United States, for he is shown to have shipped in- struments frequently in 1817 from his shop, " 96 Han- over corner of Conway Street," in Baltimore to Havana, for the West Indian trade ; this being somewhat like sending " coals to Newcastle," for Havana at this time was a sort^of wholesale depot for European goods in- tended for the United States market. After a short stay with Osborn, Stewart and he quar- relled, whereupon they separated. The intelligence' and superior skill of Jonas Chicker- ing, then in Osborn 's shop, as a skilled piano-maker, had 58- HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. been for a long time observed by the quick eye of Stew- art, with the result that he induced Jonas Chickering to become his partner in starting an independent business. In 1823 Stewart started on Tremont Street, when Stewart & Chickering first appears in the directory. Next year they moved to 20 Common Street, where they were located until 1826, when Stewart went to London, where he afterward became noted in relation to the Collard & Collard pianofortes, as shown in another chapter. CHAPTER V. New York. early harpsichord and pianoforte importers tre- maine zedwitz— pierson — pianofortes— gii,es~mar- quis de chastellux — astor campbell dodds & CLAUS. Spinets and virginals were itnown in New Yorlc as early as the beginning of the last century, and toward the Revolutionary period harpsichords became common in every family having any claims to distinction — mone- tary or otherwise. These were nearly all imported from England, together with other articles of art and luxury used in the households of the rich colonists. Learned European travellers in this country before the Revolution usually expressed their surprise at finding an unusual degree of art taste and refinement among the educated classes, even though Americans were in these colonial days necessarily dependent upon Europe for intellectual and artistic food in the shape of books, paintings, music, musical instruments, and everything tending to promote higher intellectual and artistic development. In the face of this fact travellers from the old world were naturally surprised to find colonial households, in many 6o HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. cases, particularly in the cities, supplied with nearly all the luxuries known in London and Paris. That the people of the cities appreciated and understood things besides working, praying, and sleeping, is evidenced from the promotion of journalism and drama in these centres at a very remote period. Great orators and scholars like Henry, Carroll, Franklin, the Adamses, and such figures in pre-Revolutionary and subse- quent history, were not fed intellectually upon a mere course of stereotyped school studies and rustic pastimes. Those men read deeply, knew what was going on in the old world — although seven and eight weeks after date — and were by no means so antiquated as some writers would have us believe. Their personal letters, speeches, and general utterances indicate that they were men of great culture and breadth of character, fully in touch with literary, art, as well as political progress. All of them, from Washington upward, knew indirectly something of music, and appreciated it thoroughly. In connection with the prominent people of that great epoch, which marks the impulse of this country toward national greatness, we read of spinets, harpsichords, and pianofortes. The Carroll harpsichord, the Washing- ton pianoforte, and facts of this kind are mentioned in standard histories. Jefferson and his contemporary lights alluded to drama, music, and painting in their public utterances and private correspondence in most familiar and appreciative terms, and in the houses of all of these men were to be found harpsichords and piano- fortes at a very early date. Spinets, virginals, and harpsichords were brought over from London by general merchants in the same • . NEW YORK. 6i manner as paintings, books, fine furniture, and other luxuries and necessaries were imported. Usually ship masters studied every want, and in some cases contracted with colonists for the purchase of special articles in Eng- land. All fhe ships engaged in this trade before 1783 were mostly British, and for twenty or more years after, they held the sway on the seas as international traders. General merchants of New York, such as Hayman Levy, Peter Goelet, Campbell, and Gault, John Arthur, Riving- ton, and others, imported harpsichords — and occasionally a pianoforte for a special customer before 1776 — in an in- formal manner ; meanwhile they brought over furniture, paintings, clothing, pots, kettles, ladies' hoops and fine- ries, books, and a thousand other articles in the same ship. In those days of American life storekeepers did not devote themselves to one or two specialties entirely, which has since grown to be the order of things. In many cases these rich merchants we're owners or part owners in trading ships. As regards spinet or harpsichord-making in New York, the earliest account of this nature on record is, as far as can be learned, that one Tremaine, a skilful cabinet- maker and musician, incidentally made a harpsichord of " a most agreeable and melodious volume and tone char- acter," which was used in the old John Street Theatre in 1759 at a benefit performance arranged by a " com- pany of London thespians just in town." Tremaine was before this year, like Crehore, associated with the stage of this old house occasionally as a stage carpenter and general handyman. He subsequently became an actor. Annals of the American stage say that he made his debut in 1759 at Williamsburg, Va., appearing after- 6 2 HIS TOR Y OF THE A ME RICA N PTA NOFO R TE. ward in New York. Tremaine was probably the first musical director in this country, for he essayed about this year to act in that capacity. He held a place on the New York stage until after the Revolution as an actor, and seems to have been generally respectefl in his pro- fession. Passing over 1759, the next circumstance in this line of research I discover, is an announcement in an issue of the New York Journal iox 1773, stating that " David Walhaupter, at the upper end of Fair Street makes and repairs harpsichords, guitars, and all sorts of musical instruments." They had pianofortes in New York in this year also, for I find in another issue of this paper that " Herman Zedwitz, violin teacher just from Europe," advertises a concert at " Hull's Assembly Rooms at the sign of the Golden Spade," and on following out the subsequent numbers of the newspaper referred to for news of this concert, I find among other things that " the accompaniment of Mr. Hulett on the pianoforte was very chaste and always appropriate to the variations of Mr. Zedwitz's playing," as this precursor of ourlatter- day musical critics oddly expresses it. Thus we see that the residents of New York at that period were not so backward, in a musical sense, as they are generally sup- posed to have been. In 1774 Herman Zedwitz established a sort of " trust" in the business of chimney cleaning, and offers through the Journal to take " contracts per year or quarter" for dusting out the sooty interiors of flues. " None but com- petent boys employed," he assures his patrons. Rather an incongruous association of professions, truly. New Yorkers scarcely appreciated the genius of Herr Zedwitz, NEW YORK. 63 very evidently, as a violin virtuoso, when he had to recruit his financial status, between professional stances, by sending small boys up chimneys. In 1775 one William Pierson announces from his ad- dress "at tKe sign of the Dial, Hanover Square," that he teaches vocal music and the harpsichord, also tunes harpsichords and other musical instruments. This is- sue of the New York Journal, May 14th, 1775, published while yet the guns of Lexington echoed in the people's ears, contains quite a number of musical and dramatic items, all contrasting very incongruously when compared with the general columns of the paper, which is filled with patriotic letters, resolutions, and exhortations, all breathing the spirit of war. David Wolhaupter rises to the occasion, for he asserts typographically in that issue that his " military drums equal anything imported." John Holt, the patriotic editor of the Journal, prints an- other paragraph informing his readers that excellent drums could be purchased at his store. In addition to the facts recited I find various concerts announced during 1773, 1774, and 1775, many new names appearing meanwhile, among them being that of William C. Hulett, mentioned previously, who became quite prom- inent afterward. Among announcements of goods re- ceived from England by city merchants, in these years, musical instruments appeared in quite a casual and ordinary manner. Peter Goelet, in his new supply of goods just imported in the " Earl of Dunmore," adver- tised April 29th, 1773, specifies over three hundred differ- ent articles, ranging from " masons' trowels up to oil paintings," through " skillets, spades, books, paint-pots, to guitars, fiddles, flutes, and other musical instruments." 64 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. A " large box of harpsichord wire and hammers" is also included in this particular list. What is meant by the word " hammers" is rather vague, unless piano-hammers were meant, harpsichords having no such action princi- ple. More likely these were tuning hammers. This list of goods published referred only to articles generally displayed for sale. In special cases, when harpsichords or pianofortes were brought over by these general im- porters, it was by a previous contract, therefore these facts were never announced. In the different other lists appearing, musical instruments, such as guitars and violins, appear invariably. Peter Goelet, however, was regarded, as far back as 1767, as an importer of musical instruments and music in a special sense above all others. A curious advertisement is printed in the New York Packet for October 7th, 1773, signed Peter Paracelus Puff, which reads " French fiddle-strings ; or, music with- out a master," in which the aforesaid Peter expresses willingness to show off his invention to visitors at his warerooms corner of Dupe Street, playing several airs in the interim for any gentleman desiring the dose. There is an atmosphere of mystery about this invention and Peter Paracelus Puff, that I have failed to fathom anyhow. I gather, however, that Mr. Puff was a wag. A more definite reference to pianofortes appears in the New York Journal during 1774. An auction of goods saved from the wrecked ship " Pedro " is here announced at P. McDavitt's auction store " near Coenties Slip," and among other things mentioned three " hammer harpsi- chords slightly damaged" are included. These, no doubt, were pianofortes specially ordered for some fam- ilies in Baltimore, for which port the ship was destined. NEW YORK. 65 The Revolutionary period interposes between the year 1775 and 1783, therefore nothing can be learned of direct relevance to this work about harpsichords, pianofortes, or musical instruments through the New York press of the time. People did not, however, during those years forget to take what pleasure they possibly could out of life, for work and commerce went on about as usual within New York, and, as a writer says : " Never before was there so much amusement and diversion in the Dutch town. The tavern roofs nightly rang with the loyal songs of the soldiers, and the streets and byways of the city were gay with life and military music." This con- tinued during the occupation of New York by the Brit- ish. Meanwhile, anticipating a permanent stay in the city, the officers of the regiments settled down to the regular routine of life, determining, soldier fashion, to extract as much pleasure as possible from the surround- ings. Owing to the presence of such an unusual number of soldiers within its limits the city was turned into a constant scene of gayety. The John Street Theatre was taken possession of, rechristened the Royal Theatre,, and performances were regularly given by the military officers throughout those years, records of which are- partly given in Ireland's " Annals of the New York Stage." In the " Travels and Adventures of Captain Giles," a Scotch military officer who was stationed in New York during a portion of this period, I find a very significant allusion to early pianofortes in New York. He also gives some interesting pictures of New York life during these years. From Captain Giles's work one learns that in the winter of 1778-79, while the soldiers of Washing- 5 66 HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. ton, not three hundred miles away, were starving and perishing for want of shelter, the wives and daughters of the rich New York merchants gave themselves entirely up to the gayety and enjoyment of picturesque military surroundings, fairly revelling in the originality of the situation The author of " Knickerbocker Life in New York" reiterates some of these anomalies. Apropos of this period Giles writes : " There was surely never before such a demand known in the stores of the merchants for rich silks, laices, and fineries. The Bowling Green presented a rich spectacle in the summer afternoons. The rich uniforms of our officers, their gay conversation and brilliant accomplishments won the hearts of the fair colonists. If the York ladies were the only foes we had to fight," he very piquantly asserts, " the king would still have possessed the colonies." Evidently the gallant captain was somewhat of a musi- cian, for he speaks of going to one Campbell's, in Maiden Lane, for strings and music-books. Elsewhere he says, in reference to a dramatic performance given at the Royal Theatre, " We were at a loss to procure musicians for the play owing to trouble with Carew and Sanson. Stevens refused to ask the colonel, and we were much chagrined to think of the injury to the play, when a lucky accident came to our rescue. This was Sunday morning, and Stevens, the witty fellow, travelled all the taverns. He came across a French harpsichord player, who was agreeable to our wishes and price, and next got a piano- forte at Campbell's store. That night we had it taken on a sleigh to the theatre, when the driver, a burly Dutch- man, Stevens, and myself unloaded it. We kept it con- cealed until Monday afternoon, when we exhibited it to NEW YORK. 67- the astonishment of poor Andre and the other players, who were delighted beyond measure." The play Giles refers to was Kelly's '' False Delicacy," in which Major Andre, afterward executed as a spy, acted as prompter. This gallant officer, it seems, acted as a scene-painter at the Royal Theatre, from time to time, during his life in New York. The Campbell mentioned by Giles must have been the person of that name connected with Campbell and Gault. Throughout those years when the British occupied New York, we learn that musical instruments were freely imported, and the ladies of the city vied with each other as never before to excel in personal accomplishments and graces. Marquis de Chastellux, whose " Travels" created so much notice when first published sixty years ago, is quoted by the author of " The Republican Court" for the purpose of showing the condition of art in this coun- try over a century ago. M. de Chastellux visited Bos- ton and Philadelphia in 1780, and in his work expresses the surprise he felt at finding many pianofortes in the houses visited, and to note that the ladies had a keen appreciation of good music and art. This writer pays particular attention to the fact regarding pianofortes, because outside of a few centres in Europe they were yet little known. From his references elsewhere to harpsi- chords and other musical instruments he did not mistal^e the former for pianofortes by any means. In " The Re- publican Court" may be also seen citations from many other writers, tending to throw light upon this period of American life, from which further evidence may be de- duced going to show that harpsichords and pianos were 68 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. better known in this country at that time than is gener- ally supposed. It has long been an established belief that John Jacob Astor, the first member of that family — known through their extraordinary wealth — was the first to import pianos into this country. Astor only imported his first instru- ments in 1789, therefore it is a manifest absurdity in the face of the evidence here given to accept this tradition any longer. The first Astor was such a notable figure, however, in the early days of the piano business, that he deserves more than a cursory allusion. That magnificent monument to his generosity and patriotism — viz., the Astor Library, which is to every bibliographer a source of wealth and inspiration, and to the public a priceless treasure, alone entitles the founder, in his relationship to pianos, to serious notice in these pages. John Jacob Astor was born in Germany in 1763, and on reaching the age of manhood gave his first evidence of strong individuality by starting for London to seek his fortune. After a short stay in that metropolis, where he was employed for some time in a pianoforte house, he determined to investigate his chances in the new world. In 1783, accordingly, he sailed for Baltimore, having a small collection of flutes as his sole stock in trade, so writers give it. On the voyage hither he made the acquaintance of a New York fur merchant, and be- came interested in this business as a possible field for advancement. Meanwhile a lucky storm caused the ship to head for New York, where young Astor determined to land. He disembarked his very small cargo of personal effects, and immediately entered into the field of strife with characteristic promptness. He subsequently en- NEW YORK. 69 gaged in the fur exporting business, which was for a great many years his real specialty. He established trading stations in remote sections of the North and Northwest, and developed the resources of his business with such infinite skill that he quickly laid the basis of the immense fortune he was possessed of at his death. His connection with pianos all along was momentary and casual. When he began to export furs in 1789 he imported occasionally a few pianos, so as to fill up time and help to defray expenses, but this was never at any time regarded by Astoras his stap>4e business. When in a few years his fur business assumed proportions, he eschewed all relations with pianos, Michael and John Paff succeeding him in this branch. What John Jacob Astor did in the role of importer of pianofortes was done by numerous other merchants years before his arrival in the United States, as shown. He was not the first to import pianofortes, and is not entitled to be known as the " father of the music trade," as he is frequently termed by speakers and writers. Moreover, he never, as can be proved, took any particular pride in the part he played in piano history, and had modest and sensible pretensions in this connection. The first legitimate pianoforte and music-store — apart from Campbell's, al- luded to, whose history, however, is buried in doubt — was Gilfert's, and this was in existence as early as 1786. A regular line of pianos and musical instruments was here kept on hand. For many years the name was known in New York in relation to pianofortes and other features of musical art, which shall be recounted in due place. Additional evidence in reference to John Jacob Astor's real position as a piano dealer is furnished elsewhere. 70 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. One Campbell turns up in the first New York directory published in 1786, which cannot have been the Campbell formerly spoken of. In this year, however, an announce- ment appears in one of the city papers that " Samuel Campbell, of 44 Hanover Street, has received new music for German flute, harpsichord, and pianoforte : Glee, ' The Hermit,' by Goldsmith; overture by Rossini; solos for guitar, with a number of modern songs," etc. This individual, some say, only came from Scotland in 1783, therefore it cannot be the Campbell whose name occurs in conjunction with pianos. So much now upon the importation of harpsichords and pianofortes. Evidence is here adduced to show that un- questionably pianofortes were commonly made in New York as far back as 1785. The first point is that evidence is in existence going to show that one George Ulshoefer, a German musician, also a harpsichord and pianoforte- tuner, exhibited a pianoforte of his own make in the coffee- room of the City Tavern in 1785, where it was used at a concert given in aid of an old musician named Philip Harrison, formerly, back in 1762, connected with the New Theatre situated in Chapel Street. Ulshoefer claimed to have made every part of the instrument himself, which is hardly probable. George Ulshoefer's "patent high-strung pianoforte," the instrument was styled. Here is more culminating evidence about the early production of pianos in New York taken from the first number of the Diary or Louden s Register issued on Feb- ruary i2th, 1792 : " Messrs. Dodds & Claus, musical instrument manu- factory, 66 Queen Street, announce that the forte piano is become so exceedingly fashionable in Europe that few NEH^ YORK. ?[ polite families are without it. This much-esteemed in- strument forms an agreeable accompaniment to the female voice, takes up but little room, may be moved with ease, and consequently kept in tune with little at- tention, so it is on that account superior to the harpsi- chord. The improvements which Messrs. Dodds & -Claus have made in the forte piano have rendered it mugh more acceptable than those imported. The introduction of their newly-invented hammers and dampers is acknowl- edged to be a great improvement, as also the means they have taken to prepare their wood to stand the effect of our climate, which imported instruments never do, but are sure to suffer from the saline quality of the seas. One great advantage to the purchaser is that Messrs. Dodds & Claus make it an invariable rule to repair every instrument that may prove defective in the workmanship if applied to within two years after delivery." Thomas Dodds, organ builder and musical instrument maker in general, 66 Queen Street, appears in the first New York directory issued in 1786. Clements Claus came from London in 1788, where he took out a patent in relation to a new stringed instrument in 1781. Claus was, how- ever, a native of Stuttgart, Germany. Thomas Dodds, apart from the citation given from Louden s Diary, made harpsichords and pianofortes in 1786 at the address given. In May, 1785, one Joseph Adam Fleming, harpsichord and pianoforte-maker " from Europe," advertised him- self in ih^ Independent Journal from 27 Crown Street, with this significant postscript : " Harpsichords and other instruments made, sold, bought, and exchanged or let out at quarterly payments. ' ' CHAPTER VI. Philadelphia. THE FIRST PIANOFORTE MADE ON THIS CONTINENT — JOHN" BEHRENT — JULIAN ALBRECHT — TAWS — MORE ABOUT HAWKINS— THOMAS JEFFERSON. The first pianoforte made on this continent, to all ap- pearances, was that produced by John Behreiit, in Phila- delphia in 1775. When we consider how much the instrument has con- tributed toward human happiness and the promotion of art and culture in Europe and America, the honor fall- ing to Philadelphia through formal recognition of the fact, is by no means inconsiderable. Apart from this point the " Quaker City" was the principal seat of the trade up to about 1835. The Franklin Institute of Phila- delphia, moreover, gave a most significant stimulus to the development of the piano art business in this country, when it established its system of annual exhibition fairs in 1824, devoted to progress and invention in the me- chanic arts, which have been a permanent feature of this useful institution since that year. This was the parent of the New York Mechanics' Institute founded ^.JI^J&^ TiTE C'AintoLL ll.vitrsrciioitn. Made hy Tschiuji d- BrcfKlicotxL Now in ])nst:-f,' ? < n 3 o ^ a S o ts o 12; o < w Sj P4 ' ' ■.(l. Mnvch^ 1375. NEW YORK: 249 ordinary heads think it difficult enough to manage one concern, but Mr. Smith thinks little of undertaking them per quantum evidently. In 1862 the very significant and eminent firm of Decker Brothers came into existence. Mr. David Decker and Mr. John Jacob Decker, the originators of the business, are eminently practical piano-makers. Both were born in Germany, where they learned their craft before coming to these shores. In New York they worked in many of the best shops, and thus became acquainted with American methods very thoroughly previous to starting in business, meantime holding good positions in special capacities in New York factories. Having ac- cumulated a small capital, and being attached to each other's interests, which was in itself an additional point of vantage over other manufacturers, in addition to being both highly skilled craftsmen, it is no surprise to read the story of their subsequent success. Mr. David Decker is an inventor of marked ability, as the numerous patents recorded in Washington to his credit testify. Mr. John Jacob Decker, head of the house as at present constituted, is also an inventor of distinction and a " scale" draughtsman of considerable ability. The peculiarly fine characteristics of the latter- day Decker Brothers instrument owes much of these qualities to his practical supervision and innovative capacity. Among the patents that have been taken out in relation to the Decker Brothers pianos are No. 25,- 393, September 13th, 1859, issued to David Decker ; No. 38,731, June 2d, 1863, to the same inventor ; No. 45,818, June loth, 1865, and No. 61,612, taken out con- jointly by J. J. and D. Decker on January 28th, 1867. 250 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. These are all of high utility, although two of them have been put aside several years ago to make way for more modern improvements of the same nature. From 1862 to 1890 Decker Brothers have kept well in the front rank, and besides originating special improve- ments, have adopted the best methods as they came into being elsewhere with many clever modifications, which is perfectly legitimate, for no one individual can claim to have produced or developed the piano, and radical improvements are to an extent ethically the property of the whole trade. The familiar illustrations applied so often throughout to show the rise of other successful firms apply equally to Decker Brothers. For instance, their modest start in business in 1862, culminating in their present successful position as a large and leading house devoted to the production of first-class pianos, is a story easily told. The conditions necessary to these re- sults are obviously intelligence, perseverance, self-con- fidence, practical skill, and a sympathy with musical art. Mr. David Decker retired from business several years ago, while Mr. John Jacob Decker still retains an active lead in the firm. Kranich & Bach came into the sphere of the trade also in war times, for they began business in 1864. Mr. H. Kranich and J. Bach, the originators of this concern, were both born in Germany, and are practical piano- makers, each skilled in a special department. Their first start in business was unpretentious, but toward 1875 they had become steadily established as manufacturers of reputable instruments. Since that period their busi- ness has progressed very uniformly. They have brought out many detailed improvements, and their pianos appeal NEIV YORK. 251 to a large constituency of intelligent patrons, while in some sections of the country they enjoy great popularity among the masses. Toward 1865 the Narvesen piano was well known as a popular instrument. Conrad Narvesen, the initiator of this piano, was born in Norway, coming to this country at an early age. He began business as early as 1845 in New York. Narvesen, Hangaard & Bergmann were carrying on this old business, in 1880, at 230 and 232 East Thirty-sixth Street, when R. M. Walters purchased their plant and general good-will in August of that year. Since that time Mr. Walters has continued the manufac- ture of these instruments. The once well-known firm of Marschall & Mittauer was formed in 1867, and within a short period became noted as makers of excellent instruments. Both of these named were practical, especially Marschall, who was a very prominent inventor in his time. Mittauer, who died in St. Louis some years ago, was a native of Baden, Ger- many, and was a department foreman in the shop of Lighte & Bradbury previous to joining Marschall. The- odore Marschall was a Bavarian by birth. After arriving in New York, in 1851, he went into business with another piano maker, thus creating Marschall & Locotte, which was of short duration. He afterward occupied the posi- tion of superintendent in Lighte & Bradbury's until 1867, as deiailed. Marschall & Mittauer were known up to 1871, when Boernhoeft succeeded them, then Hugo Sohmer & Company. I find that Callenberg & Vaupel, at present in exist- ence, were well known as makers of good moderate- priced instruments as far back as 1864, They, however, 25 i HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. began as early as 1858. Both of the members composing this old concern are practical, and have enjoyed a large experience in the piano business. Instruments of this class fill a popular want, and are therefore worthy of notice, apart from the fact that Callenberg & Vaupel have been known for thirty years. The Christy piano was a well-known instrument back in 1865. Mr. Jacob Christy, the originator of the busi- ness that up to a recent period bore his name, entered the trade over thirty years ago, and is in every sense a practical piano-maker. He built up a very large business meanwhile, and was well known up to a few years ago. Mr. Christy is at the present time connected with the Colby Piano Company at Erie, Pa. Among the other piano-making firms that had attained some note toward 1870 as makers of instruments for the masses were C. D. Pease & Company, yet in existence and large manufacturers ; Soebler & Company, Schraidt, Schmidt & Company, Ihne & Son, Ambler &. Company, Wing & Son, Ziegler & Company, and other small con- cerns too numerous to recount. There are few of our latter-day houses enjoy such popularity as Sohmer & Company. It is gratifying to be able to trace throughout the growth of this house up to its present plane the fact that their pianos have never been put forth from the standpoint of folding-beds or miscellaneous merchandise, but have always -been asso- ciated with musical art and the patronage of artists of a high order. Sohmer & Company is a modern house comparatively, having been founded in 1872, although in reality going back before i860. Mr. Hugo Sohmer, its author and head, was born in NEW YORK. 253 the Black Forest, Germany, in 1846. His family were in good circumstances, his father being an eminent phy- sician, and his education therefore was first class. Not only was he put through a good educational system, such as German scholastic methods afford, but he was placed subsequently in the hands of a private tutor, a distin- guished scholar and literary man, with whom he finished his studies. Added to these accomplishments, Mr. Soh- mer acquired a knowledge of music and the pianoforte in the mean time. The head of Sohmer & Company must have been, de- spite his early surroundings and musical temperament, a very practical youth, for we find him at sixteen years of age landing in the new world to seek his fortune, thus following the example of some of the sturdiest citizens this country has seen. In a week after arriving in New York he was working as an apprentice to piano-making in the factory of Schuetze & Ludolf, which was, as pointed out, one of the most significant piano manufacturing houses in New York at the time. Here he learned piano- making through and through, as practised in this coun- try, and had the privilege of working almost side by side with many of the best piano-makers known in New York. In 1868 Mr. Sohmer paid a temporary visit to Ger- many, and remained some time. During the interval he travelled in various European capitals and studied piano- making thoroughly anew from the European point of view. 1870 beheld him again back in New York, with a new purpose and aim, which reached the first point of culmination in 1872, when he began manufacturing in conjunction with his present partner, Mr. Josef Kuder, the new firm Sohmer & Company being successors to 254 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. J. H. Boernhoeft, who in turn had succeeded the old house of Marschall & Mittauer previously. Sohmer & Company also went into immediate occupation of the factory on Fourteenth Street and Third Avenue formerly used by Marschall & Mittauer, which Boernhoeft had continued in, and which they yet occupy as warerooms and finishing shop combined. As I said, the start of Mr. Sohmer as a master piano- maker, to use a good old term, was the first culminating point in his ambition ; the next was to make instruments entirely worthy of his name and technical relationship ; and the third and major degree of this ambition was to secure for them the approval of all good artists and authorities in this country. The standing of the Sohmer piano to-day as a musical and art product answers all requirements, and is sufficiently familiar not to need en- dorsement, while the commercial standing of the firm of Sohmer & Company is so stable and assured that it seems as if all his wishes are already realized. From a few pianos a week, which output was reached within six months after starting, the Sohmer firm gradually de- veloped a business and a name. In 1876 the Centennial Exhibition authorities awarded them high honors in company with many of the oldest houses in the country, which was not without good results. In 1883 an additional factory was taken on East Twenty-third Street, formerly used by Carhart & Need- ham, the organ manufacturers, which building was used to its extreme limit up to 1886. Another landmark, so to speak, indicative of progress was set up in this year by Sohmer & Company, for they rented an extension to their building on Fourteenth Street and Third Avenue, NEW YORK. 255 while their present extensive shops in Astoria, L. I., were begun, into which they moved all their old plant in addition to special machinery on its completion in 1887. All of the foregoing marks of development speak of the steady growth and extension of the business of this firm, and require no special emphasis. Mr. Josef Kuder, Mr. Sohmer's partner, is a native of Bohemia, Austria. In his boyhood he went to Vienna, and learned piano-making in the shop of Heintzmann. Here he spent seven years, but hearing of the greater scope afforded talents and industry in the new world, he bade adieu to his native land in 1854, and sailed for New York. His first experience in the metropolis as a piano- maker was in the shop of Steinway & Sons, then on Walker Street. After about a year he entered Lighte, Newton & Bradbury's employ, where he became a de- partment foreman, his specialty being grand and square regulating and finishing ; but owing to the depression and general feeling of inertness that followed the panic of 1857, Mr. Kuder returned to Vienna in 1861, where he re-entered Heintzmann's shop. Like all persons that have lived in the invigorating and independent atmos- phere of United States civilization for any time, Mr. Kuder turned his face westward once more and arrived in New York in 1864, having meantime grown tired of work-a-day life in Vienna, where so many hide-bound superstitions and antiquated formalities hold sway, as in all European cities. He now took a position with Marschall & Mittauer, with whom he continued up to their dissolution in 18.71, and continued with Boernhoeft, their successor, up to the time he joined Mr. Sohmer and formed Sohmer & Com- 256 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. pany, which firm became in turn the successors to Boern- hoefc, as shown. In conjunction with making first-class instruments, Sohmer & Company have introduced a number of pat- ented and unpatented improvements from time to time. Principal among these patents are No. 268,562 and No. 268,563, March 5th, 1882, the first relating to an agraffe bar for tone augmentation, the second in relation to an action improvement of considerable utility. Three other more important records are illustrated in these pages — viz., No. 15,250, issued on August 12th, 1884, being a design for a bijou grand at present in adoption and ex- tremely popular ; Patent No. 358,946, a " reverberation" scale, taken out on March 8th, 1887, and No. 357,436, which was granted on February 8th, 1887, for a pianis- simo pedal. They will be recognized by these titles in the illustrations. The Sohmer & Company bijou grand was constructed so as to give a more symmetrical shape and a better ap- pearance to grand pianos. Unlike the regulation style, this instrument is semi-circular or cycloid-shaped, with some points of distinction as shown, and presents a very pleasing appearance. Patent No. 358,946, which was taken out for " certain new and useful improvements in pianofortes," I have named a reverberation scale, for the reason that it refers to a system of " scaling" or string adjustment exemplified in a grand in the drawing given, where auxiliary strings are arranged in conjunction with the regular strings for the purpose of giving forth rever- beratory or sympathetic waves of sound, thus augment- ing the general tone results of each unison, and conse- quently the ensemble for obvious reasons. The auxiliary n Ph o S a e o o m « o R K o Is Iz; C5 03 O o ^ J» Ph d R O 02 ^ ■« NEIV YORK. 257 String connected with each unison in grands goes through a special hole in the agraffe, and is tuned at the same time as the others. Meanwhile the regulation strings pass through the " bearing" holes in the agraffe lower down, and thence to the tuning-pins. This is. applied by Sohmer & Company in a special manner, principally extending from the middle up to the extreme treble register in pianos. The Sohmer pianissimo pedal, protected by Patent No. 3S7>436, is an improved attachment for producing refined and B.t\\%\\c piano effects in their instruments, and is used in corhbination with the ordinary soft pedal for these purposes. By an ingenious trap-work and action arrange- ment, moreover, the hammer line in uprights can be pro- jected to any range of distance from the strings without a diminution of touch control in front with the pleasant consequences outlined, which is invaluable. In concluding this sketch of Sohmer & Company, the names of Mr. George Reichman and Mr. Charles Fahr, two of their confidential and leading assistants, come uppermost. The former has charge of their retail de- partment, and is a polished and versatile specialist, while Mr. Fahr attends to the financial and business manage- ment of the firm, both responsible positions for which they are entirely qualified. 17 T^^i>z^f^^st,^€f^f^^i^3fZ3i^:s^:3r^ii,ZA^3f^.si^^e3F;^^ CHAPTER XX. New York. THE GREAT CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION FOREIGN COUNTRIEh^ REPRESENTED — SOME INCIDENTAL REMARKS — THE MODERN HOUSE OF CHICKERIXG & SONS — PATENTS — P. J. GILDE- MEESTER— THE PAINE EPISODE. 1876, the centennial year of the independence of the United States, has retrospectively some historical bearing on the development of the piano. At the great Centen- nial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in this year, the principal American pianoforte makers came together for Ihe second time in national history — the first being the 'World's Fair of 1853 — and exhibited the products of their art and skill side by side. Again, as in 1853, foreign ipiano-makers were seen arrayed in friendly competition ■for honors with native manufacturers, and not a little benefit was derived on each side from this informal ex- change of courtesies. Keen rivalry predominated in the attitude of many United States makers to each other, which is, however, the " life and soul " of progress, and is nothing unusual in commercial life. Curiously enough, there were about the same number of European manu- facturers as Americans exhibited. Among the foreign NEW YORK. 259 countries represented, Germany and France led. The former sent Altenburg & Graue, of Bremen ; B'.uthner, of Leipzig ; Schiedmayer and Staliiecker, of Stuttgart ; Ibach &Son, of Barmen ; Schwechten, of Berlin ; Kaps, of Dres- den, and E. Seller, of Liegnitz. France was only one be- hind. The French makers were all from Paris, which is the centre of the piano business in that country. They were Beunon, Baudet, Brunning, Debain & Company, Focke & Son, C. GavioH, Jr., and Kriegelstein & Com- pany. Great Britain only sent Brinsmead & Sons, L. W. Collmann, and J. H. ^Browne, while a few other European countries were indifferently represented by a casual maker here and there. The general display of piano- fortes at the exhibition was very significant in every re- spect. It showed plainly the superiority and inferiority contained on both sides in European and native pianos in a detailed and analytical sense of comparison, while it served to illustrate the progress made by this country since 1853 in the art of piano-making. This informal convention of European and native makers was, however, characterized by universal good feeling toward the for- eign element, while all the strength of competition seems to have reposed between American manufacturers. While many points of excellence worthy of adoption were noted in the pianos of Brinsmead & Sons and Browne, London, Bluthner, Leipzig, iand Debain, Paris, American piano- makers in general had reason to feel very proud of their instruments, and the great development reached in the art and craft in this country since 1775, when Behrent announced the first piano in Philadelphia. While a most courteous and hospitable demeanor was evinced by the judges toward European exhibitors, there 26o HISTORY OP THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. was no use trying to conceal the fact that the first-class American pianos exhibited excelled the best instruments of European makers in almost every respect. At the same time, American makers were bound to admit that in point of finish and detail, in regard to construction and or- namentation, many German, French, and English pianos sent across contained points of high excellence. The good that must have necessarily accrued from this com- petitive convention of piano manufacturers, foreign and native, is shown plainly in the foregoing. The American makers that exhibited at this great commemorative ex- hibition comprise all the modern and standard firms treated of in these chapters. This consideration of the Centennial Exhibition serves appropriately as an introduction to the modern history of the internationally famed house of Chickering & Sons. This eminent firm occupies a unique place in the his- tory of the American pianoforte, for it is at this date the oldest house on this continent, while it has a pre-eminent record in connection with the evolution of the piano and the progress of musical art in the United States, which dates in an unbroken line back to 1823, over a space of sixty-seven years, and yet its prestige has never retro- graded in the slightest with the advance of time, and it remains to-day unsurpassed in progressiveness. The modern aspect of the house as one of the foremost and great leading firms in this country, financially and professionally, has occasionally been lost sight of, by writers who love historic lore. Therefore, while having shown in earlier chapters the historical development of the firm up to the death of Mr. Jonas Chickering in 1853, with a few connecting observations on Mr. C. F. Chick- JVEIV YORK. 261 ering and Mr. G. .H. Chickering, I have reserved for separate treatment the history of Chickering & Sons from that year up to the present time. Upon the death of Mr. Jonas Chickering the task of preserving and perpetuating the honor and fame of the house was bequeathed to his sons, Col. Thomas E., C. Frank, and G. H. Chickering, and, unlike many old pianoforte houses that have gone down into oblivion, the inventive and commercial genius of the Chickering brothers has built up the reputation and stability of the house upon a strong and sure founda- tion, and made its products known the world over. The first-named — Thomas E. Chickering — whose prem- ature decease in 1871, in Boston, was generally regretted by all clasjis, was the oldest son of Mr. Jonas Chicker- ing, and one of the original firm of Chickering & Sons. He was a highly qualified member of the house, practically and commercially, having acquired a thorough knowl- edge of piano-making under his father's care in their factory, commencing at seventeen years of age, after which he devoted himself with assiduity to the commer- cial aspect of the business. He was admitted into the firm as a partner in 1852 along with his brothers, C. Frank and George H. Chickering, and for upward of nineteen years was largely identified with the progress and career of Chickering & Sons. Meanwhile, Colonel Chickering devoted himself principally throughout to the wholesale department of the business, in Boston. His popularity in musical, literary, and art circles, like his brothers, C. Frank and G. H. Chickering, was very great in his native city and elsewhere, and in connection with the records of the Handel and Haydn Society his name fig- ures prominently, to which may be added the great Boston 262 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Peace Jubilee. This worthy member of a distinguished family of inventors died on February 14th, 1871, in his native city. This was a great bereavement in the private history of Chickering & Sons, by reason of the strong bonds of sympathy uniting the brothers, more than exists usually between members of one family. Mr. C. Frank Chickering, the present senior member of Chick- ering & Sons, has been its practical and inventive head since the death of his father, in 1853, called him to assume this function. All notable progressions in " scaling," mechanics, and other departments of piano-making that have appeared in the Chickering piano for over thirty-six years have originated with and been produced under the practised and educated eye of this eminent specialist, who continues to be one of the strong factors in modern pianoforte development. Mr. C. F. Chickering was born in Boston on June 20th, 1827. He received a first-class education, and was duly initiated into the " mysteries" of his father's business un- der the latter's personal supervision. In 1844, however, he was granted a temporary respite from these duties owing to a slight indisposition, and was sent to India on a trip for the benefit of his health. This fact has some significance, owing to the circumstance that Mr. Chick- ering took some " Chickering" pianos along, which were disposed of in Calcutta and various stopping-places on the route, wheie they evoked much praise from European residents, particularly in Calcutta, their con- struction with the full iron plate making them very ac- ceptable in that climate. On returning Mr. Chickering took a position in his father's business, and finished up his studies, technical and otherwise. As I have remarked NEIV YORH. 263 in Chapter XVI., Mr. C. F. Chickering visited London in 1851, and while there helped to exhibit the Chickering pianos catalogued at the great World's Fair in that year. His decisive connection with the technical and business progress of Chickering & Sons dates from the beginning' of 1853, when, in conjunction with his brothers, he was called upon to assume charge of the great technical sphere left vacant by Mr. Jonas Chickering, who through- out his life had personally invented and introduced all new improvements appearing in his pianos. In this con- nection Mr. C. F Chickering has been very progressive and revolutionistic, and has taken out a great number' of patents of a thoroughly practical nature showing positive improvements, which are described throughout. The " circular scale" in squares, which was incontro- vertibly the key to the improved method of overstring- ing now in general adoption, which Mr. Jonas Chickering introduced in- 1845, was carried to a high point of devel- opment early in 1854 by Mr. C. F. Chickering in two scales, of which old piano-makers speak as the best scales ever produced in this country for pure tone results and uniformity in timbre. They were Very universally copied. Like the original " circular scale," they were not patent- ed, for the reason — so often referred to elsewhere — that it is impossible to legally protect "scales" or acoustic inventions of that abstract nature by patent. These were among Mr. Chickering's earliest developments in " scaling." About the same year he produced " over- stringing" in an upright, which is claimed to have been previously accomplished in 1850 by Mr. Jonas Chickering. The aim of Messrs. Chickering & Sons has ever been to produce pianofortes in which quality of tone is not 264 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. sacrificed to quantity, and throughout their career all improvements brought out by them in the region of " sounds and tones" in their instruments have been con- ditioned to this artistic end. Passing over the great commercial and artistic sphere they have filled as leading piano manufacturers, it is impossible to examine the his- tory of this honorable house and not observe throughout the modern epoch of their history a restless, persistent and successful endeavor to associate their pianos with the highest expressions of musical art, and the genius and virtuosity of the best pianists of the century ; while every new development brought forward in the " Chick- ering" piano, in its mechanics and acoustics, sprang ob- viously from high scientific and technical knowledge on the part of the initiators. Conscientious and high- minded endeavor of this nature surely deserves special emphasis ! Numerous patents have been taken out by them in relation to their instruments since 1853. Among the modern patents of Chickering & Sons are No. 32,119, which covered an improvement in squares, the object of which was " to give the square the advantage of an open bottom, similar to that of the grand piano. " Patent No. 121,334, issued on November 28th, 1871, is illus- trated elsewhere. This is a means of applying the cir- cular scale to upright pianos, and is a very significant innovation. The object is reached, as in the square, by placing the hammers in a curved line. A corresponding arched form is given to the main rail in the frame, and in addition an arched rail is used for the damper action, with special modifications indicated in the patent. Patent .No. 134,194, December 24th, 1872, and No. 175,336, March 28th, 1876, must be also mentioned. The K s o 15 O ■« a ^ 3 NEW YORK. 265 first record refers to the well-known Chickering upright action. The latter is a valuable improvement in the grand piano frame for the purpose of insuring it against string tension. Patent No. 177,332, November 20th, 1877, deals with improvements in piano acousticF, and also relates to metallic string frames. Patent No. 247,887, issued on October 4th, 1881, is a particularly noteworthy record. This patent deals with a skeleton metal frame upon which the sounding-board is supported on isolated or distant points along its edge. The iron plate is supported by the skeleton frame independent of the sounding-board. This adjustment of the latter me- dium tends to increase its effectiveness as a resonance agency, while the tone results are vastly improved. An- other record, Patent No. 330,292, October sth, 1886, is another valuable improvement in stringing and plate- bracing conditions that is illustrated permanently in the Chickering & Sons pianos. The foregoing emphasize sufficiently the progressiveness of Chickering & Sons, while the exemplification given hardly does justice to the intellectuality of the authors ; but the most valuable results are demonstrated in the tone, individuality, and musical character of their instruments. A grand piano containing an application of the improved plate outlined in the last patent — which is a significant development — was exhibited in Boston in 1887. A critical writer on one of the city papers says of this instrument : " The difficulty of overcoming the tendency to disrupt that part of the iron frame bordering on the line of the Agraffes has seemed insurmountable. That such a serious and perplexing obstacle has been completely overcome should be credited to the house of Chickering." The Chicker- 266 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. ing upright action at present in use is another develop- ment that is largely commented on as equal in results to the grand. In relation to the large number of medals, premiums, and honors bestowed on the Chickering & Sons instruments during past years much could be said. The highest distinction, however, is probably the French Cross of the Legion of Honor, bestowed upon these in- struments, which is regarded as priceless in every respect, coming from such a source as the French Government. To revert to the personal history of another distin- guished member of the house : Mr. George H. Chickering was born in Boston on April i8th, 1830, and, like his brothers, received an excellent education up to seventeen, when he was placed in his father's factorj', where he was schooled in all departments of practical piano build- ing, subsequently becoming admitted a member of the firm in 1852. Mr. Chickeiing, among his other branches, was instruct- ed in the details of hammer-making in grands, and under his father's instruction made many sets of hammer-heads for the celebrated grands used by many great artists. In later years the Chickering & Sons grands used by Thalberg, DeMeyer, Gottschalk, Herz, and other great virtuosi contained hammer sets specially made by Mr. G. H. Chickering, a fact he may take pride in. This talented member of Chickering & Sons has for many years presided over the factory in Boston, which he has governed on behalf of the house with those admirable traits so indicative of the characteristics of the founder. Here the employes are treated with rare thoughtfulness, in the true. spirit of our commonwealth, a fact I cannot duly help commending. A great number of employes NEW YORK. 267 can be found in this shop who have been there for over thirty years, and from the young apprentice up to the oldest veteran all venerate the history and traditions of the firm they work for, and tender universal respect to Mr. G. H. Chickering. In musical circles his status is indicated by the fact that he was elected president of the Handel & Hayden Society of Boston, after being its vice-president for twenty-nine years. In trade and pri- vate circles he is equally esteemed. In the history of their extensive branch house in New York, since the founding, in 1875, of Chickering Hall, which has exercised a potent influence on musical art, a new individuality has grown up in the person of Mr. P. J. Gildemeester, who has been for several years the confidential business manager of the firm. In April, 1886, the house became a close corporation, in which Mr. Gil- demeester became a partner. Mr. Gildemeester was born in New Orleans, La., in 1849, and has been brought up in a musical atmosphere. Among his musical rela- tives, the famous Louis M. Gottschalk, " the American Chopin," may be numbered. Mr. Gildemeester became known at an early period in his life as an industrious and able member of the piano trade. He entered the firm of Chickering & Sons in January, 1878, as a retail salesman, and was soon promoted to the position of traveller for the wholesale department of the house. His loyalty and devotion to the interests of Chickering & Sons has been duly rewarded by a membership in the firm, and equally with a share in the good- will and esteem of his associ- ates, and he enjoys the fullest confidence of Messrs. Chickering. ' Outside of business circles Mr. Gildemeester has few 268 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. enemies and a strong host of friends, a circumstance always indicative of personal worth. The subjoined is without doubt one of the most re- markable episodes on record in relation to the integrity of a business firm or the individuals composing it, and is shown in the fact that for nearly eighteen years Chicker- ing & Sons kept in one of their safes in New York about four hundred thousand dollars in bonds and currency, placed in their keeping by J. H. Paine, known as " Miser Paine," who was a grandson of a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence. This wealth was tied up in a dirty bandana handkerchief, and was unknown to Paine's friends. When Paine died Mr. C. F. Chickering imme- diately sent for Paine's lawyer, and revealed the astound- ing discovery of the miser's wealth. In the mean time, Paine had lived and died in the most abject poverty, and left no clew to this accumulation of the money or its whereabouts. The inference that can be adduced from the foregoing circumstance clearly serves to exemplify the great moral strength and character of the house of Chickering & Sons. Hence the introduction of this dramatic incident. But the principal actor in the drama was Mr. C. F. Chickering. There is some contrast afforded in the present Chick- ering & Sons producing factory in Boston, which is said to be the largest factory under one roof on this conti- nent, and the modest shop in which good Jonas Chicker- ing — once styled " upright, square, and grand, like his own pianos" — began business on Common Street in 1823. In this vast manufactory there is an accumulation of the most effective and modern machinery known in piano manufacturing, in addition to every facility for NEW YORK: 269 making pianos of the highest excellence. Back of these conditions stand a legion of highly-trained workmen and a staff of eminent foremen, each specially skilled in a separate field. This tells its own tale. And of the house of Chickering & Sons itself what can be said ? Clearly the present aspect of the house or the character of the instruments produced by Chickering & Sons re- quire no critical analysis here, even were such a proceed- ing in order. The firm has existed and come upward to this time through sixty-seven years of national history as an important factor in our civilization ; as the patron and friend of artists and art, and as a sympathetic supporter of musical literature. It has passed unscathed through panics, social revolutions, and the commercial depression of two great wars, and throughout all these years the name of " Chickering" has been and remains an American household word in relation to domestic music and the peaceful joys of home life. CHAPTER XXI. New York. behr brothers & co. — mr. henry behr an important house their inventions — james & holmstrom con- over brothers & company — george conover— j. frank conover — another significant firm. Like so many eminent members of the piano-making fraternity, Mr. Henry Behr, senior partner of Behr Broth- ers and collaborator in the establishment of the firm, is a Grand Army veteran, with a highly honorable record, having done good service during the Civil War in the One Hundred and Sixty-ninth New York Regiment of Volunteers, and meanwhile served one year in General Terry's division of the Army of the Potomac, a distin- guished branch of Grant's favorite command. This ought to be a sufficient indication of his patriotism, a worthy aspiration always indicative on either side of bravery, consistency, and uprightness. Mr. Behr is a native of Hamburg, Germany, a city that has given New York many worthy citizens during the past century. Clement Claus, one of the first piano-makers known in this country, was a native of that city, as shown in Chapter V. NEW YORK. 271 Mr. Henry Behr was born in 1848, and arrived in this country at a very early age. He subsequently went into piano-making, and began piano-case manufacturing for the trade in 1875. Mr. Behr is very original and practi- cal in this branch, and is the author of many of the novel designs in case ornamentation and structure that have appeared in recent years, and gone the round of the trade. The well-known Lincrusta designs in closed panels, and quite a number of other improvements, have all been originated by Mr. Behr. Behr Brothers — Mr. Henry Behr and Mr. Edward Behr being the princi- pals — was founded in i88r. They started out by deter- mining to make only instruments of the highest grade, which resolution has been admirably sustained. Added to this, they have been particularly favorable to new im- provements, and have always encouraged original ex- periments in all departments of piano structure. Such firms are the life and pulse of the piano trade. They walk over old hobbies, stir up the dormant energies of antiquated piano-makers, and bring into the atmosphere of the business a spirit of progressiveness that can never fail to be productive of good to art and commercial life. The practical success of this firm within such a short space of time is almost unparalleled, save in the case of Steinway & Sons and Albert Weber, Sr. Beginning in 1881 necessarily, like all young concerns, with no knowl- edge of what the future would bring forth, only a sincere reliance on the intelligence and discrimination of the musical public to appreciate the merits of their excellent pianos, they began to manufacture. The success of Behr Brothers is, indeed, a tribute to the intelligence of the peopla in a large degree, as in this exceedingly utilita- 272 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. rian end of the nineteenth century it takes perseverance and business genius of a high order, in addition to producing instruments of high excellence, to compete successfully with old-established houses in the piano business. Bebr Brothers & Co. have brought forward many in- novations in their instruments from time to time since i88i of a practical nature well known to the profession and the musical press, and all of distinct value. In 1889 their "hammer compensating lever" in grand actions was first produced, for which Patent No. 404,704 was granted on June 4th. This is specially illustrated in one of these pages, and is one of the most noteworthy of modern improvements in grand piano actions. Power and prompt repetition, combined with the least possible expenditure of force at the finger-tips, is considered the desideratum in a piano action and keyboard, and this is what piano manufacturers have been for years aiming at. Behr Brothers & Co. now claim to have reached a height of perfection never before attained in touch and promptness in grand actions by their new " hammer compensating lever." The principal objection, ordina- rily, to lightness of touch is the weight of the hammers, which the jacks lift up to throw against the strings. Diminish the weight of the hammers by cutting them, and the power of the blow is sacrificed. Now, without diminishing the power of the hammers by trimming down the heads or resorting to any such expedient, Behr Brothers & Co. have secured the desired ease of touch — and promptness without losing pow^er — by their patented device shown in the drawing reproduced else- where. To quote the specification : " This invention is IWl M a m o to h^ CO ^ O ■« O g o a o CO -Jew Yorli and Boston at the time, and seems to have grown into high esteem since that date. Mr. Smith, having carefully studied for many years the laws relating to res- onance and sympathy in pianos, came to the conclusion that the tone quality of the instrument would be con- siderably enhanced by insulating the vibratory body of the piano from the case proper. This he accomplished by covering the instrument all over with a soft velvety material that serves the purpose, while it gives to the in- strument an artistic finish and charm that must serve decorative art largely in the future. Mr. Smith, the inventor of this method of tone quali- fication and piano-case decoration, is a native of Enfield, Mass., where he was born in 1830. He subsequently became an apprentice in the factory of Hill, Ryder & Owen, where he learned piano-making, but later went into organ-making. Mr. David Smith, the father of H. W, Smith, was an inventor of cotton machinery of note, and it is to him we owe the old-fashioned speeder. The inventive genius displayed by Mr. H W. Smith in con- nection with the organ and piano is, therefore, inherited. .In relation to the former he has taken out a great many ■patents of significance. His " Regal Piano" is his most valuable contribution to the trade Mr. S. D. Smith of the firm is a cousin of the latter, and was born in the same place and in the same year. The latter is also practical. Mr. E. W. Smith, another personality in the business, is a brother of Mr. H. W. Smith, and occupies a commercial position. The Smith American Organ and Piano Company is a close corporation. The ofH'cers are MISCELLANEOUS FIRMS. 307 S. D. Smith, President ; H, W. Smith, Vice-President ; E. W. Smith, Treasurer ; George T. McLaughlin, Secre- tary. The latter is known in connection with this house for fourteen years. The New England Piano Company is another large Boston firm specially well known. Mr. T. F. Scanlan is the genius and head of this business. The B. Shoninger Piano of New Haven, Conn., is a well-known instrument. This old organ house began the manufacture of pianos over fifteen years ago, and in the interval has built up a large trade. Mr. Bernard Shoninger, the head of this firm, is a native of Bavaria, Germany. He arrived in this country in 1847, •^"'i '" 1850 began the manufacture of melodeons in New Haven. Mr. Simon B. Shoninger, his son, is another member of the firm, and an able business man. They have New York warerooms. The Mathushek Piano Company of New Haven have been known for over twenty years as makers of reputable instruments, and enjoy a good share of patronage at this date. These instruments are popular in New York, where they are largely sold. In Bridgeport, Conn., Keller Brothers have a factory. In adjacent manufacturing cities small shops too numerous to recapitulate are to be found, all making cheap and in some cases criminally bad pianofortes. The Sterling pianoforte of Derby, Conn., is an instru- ment of an excellent character. The Sterling Company manufacture organs and pianofortes. Mr. Charles A. Sterling began to make the Sterling organs in 187 1, hav- ing succeeded to the business of the Birmingham Organ Company. In 1873 the business was formed into a stock 3o8 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. company. Mr. Sterling died on May 3d, 1887, in his seventy-third year. Mr. Rufus W. Blake, the highly energetic head of the present house, for many years sec- retary and general manager under the former firm, has been identified to a very large extent with the business of the firm in a manifold sense. They began to manufacture pianos in 1885, and have in five years creat- ed a very large business. The " Sterling" organ need only be mentioned as an indication of the firm's progres- siveness. Mr. Blake meanwhile is responsible for much of the success enjoyed by the house. The Mason & Hamlin Organ Company, a firm which requires only a brief introduction, owing to its eminence, began to manufacture pianos in 1883. They made a very courageous step in advance by introducing a pat- ented system of. stringing and tuning that was hailed as a piece of radicalism by the trade, while predictions were rife that Mason & Hamlin would discard their method of tuning inside of a year. Contrary to all these surmises, however, they seem to have found it thoroughly satis- factory, and the commercial and artistic results appear to be equally successful, for they enjoy a very enviable reputation already as piano manufacturers. In the Ma- son &.Hamlin system of stringing and tuning, the violin bow principle for tightening hair is the basis, worked out, however, in a very ingenious manner. They claim •that by their method pianos are more easily tuned, and are insured against getting out of tune rapidly. The p-resetit officers of the Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Company are : Mr. Henry Mason, President ; Mr. E. P. Mason, Treasurer; Mr. H. Thielberg, Secretary; Mr. A. H. Foucar, Clerk. MISCELLANEOUS FIRMS. , 309 In Chicago W. W. Kimball & Company are fast build- ing up a large business as piano manufacturers. C. A. Smith & Company is another Chicago piano manufac- turing firm. Bush & Gerts and W. H. Bush & Com- pany are two other firms in business in the metropolis of the West." In Detroit, Mich., the Clough & War- ren pianos are made. These are reputable pianos in most respects, and are largely used in the Northwest, where the Clough & Warren organs are well known. The " Starr" piano is a standard instrument manufac- tured in Richmond, Ind., of good repute. Coming to New York State, the Ahlstrom piano, made by C. A. Ahlstrom in Jamestown, N. Y., has been known since 1875, and is said to be a meritorious piano at a fair price. Wegman & Company of Auburn, N. Y., have some reputation as makers of pianofortes. The Colby Piano Company of Erie, Pa., began busi- ness in 1884. Mr. C. C. Colby, the senior member of this firm, is a gentleman of remarkable attainments, scholastic and otherwise. He is a native of Vermont and i^ descended from New England stock of long standing. His boyhood was passed in Pennsylvania. He settled in the West in subsequent years, where he was identified with educational movements of much significance. Mr. Colby is an excellent classical scholar, in addition tg possessing a splendid English education, all of which have been of valuable assistance in his career. He is a mem- ber of a musical and inventive family, and in boyhood Mr. Colby explored the technical mysteries of the piano, and acquired a knowledge of tuning practically, which he has since found of much service. In the line of inven- 3 to HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. tion he experimented largely in past years upon some practical method of producing sound in the piano other than strings, and in this line of research he made a tuning-fork piano after familiar principles containing new improvements of note. All of this experience, need it be said, was productive of many good results. The Colby Piano Company manufacture reputable instruments, and are fast winning popularity. They occupy a large and well-equipped factory in Erie, Pa., formerly used by Derick & Felgemaker Organ manu- facturers. They have also retail warerooms in Erie, conducted by Mr. C. C. Colby, junior, who is a practical tuner, in addition to having other qualifications neces- sary for the position he occupies. The success enjoyed by the firm so far has come through the executive abil- ity of Mr. C. C. Colby, the senior member, very largely. STO--^«-:g^ry.^^g;^g:^ci .^.^Af^Jf^^.4f^J:f^:^..J^J!f^^f^3FZ^!^,Z^'^^/^-!/.3r.^^ CHAPTER XXIV. Kindred Branches. ACTION-MAKING PREFATORY REMARKS SOME OLD MAKERS THE FIRM OF STRAUCH BROS. — ALFRED DOLGE — WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS — GENERAL REFERENCES. An historical work of tliis character would indeed be very incomplete without due recognition of the kindred industries of action-making, key-making, and the manu- facture and supply of piano materials generally. Unless in a few leading houses, where special departments can be maintained with advantage, the benefits that accrued to the whole trade from the establishment of separate industries, as indicated, outside of the routine of the piano shops, is incontrovertible, for specialists necessarily can produce better results than manufacturers that aim at doing everything at the same time. A few large firms are, however, excepted, for obvious reasons. As regards action-making, the first manufacturer that appeared in New York, as far as can be learned, was Andrew Brunei, an Alsatian. He opened a shop at 30 Clark Street in 1842, and was located here up to 1856. Later on Francis Bonneau, 176 Centre Street, Andrew Orlander, and Steb- bins & Smith appear, Coming to 1856, C. Rogers, Jesse 312 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Davis, Koth, Herter, and Westland were in business. Herterin later years arrived at some prominence. Com- ing down to more modern years and passing over a host of names we find Bothner and Abbott Brothers, at present in business, well known as action-makers. Both- ner began to make actions in 1861, and is yet doing a large and conservative business in New York. The Ab- botts, being old piano-makers, are mentioned in that con- nection elsewhere, but rank very high as reliable action- makers at present. Two examples, however, of notable development in action-making in this country are selected for treatment here. Following out the order invariably maintained in this work, the firm of Strauch Bros, is en- titled to mention at this juncture. The well-known and popular house of Strauch Bros, is an old and prominent firm devoted to action manufactur- ing. This establishment dates back to 1866 — almost a quarter of a century — during which period Strauch Bros, have enjoyed high favor in their department of the piano trade. Mr. Peter D. Strauch, who founded this successful business, is a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany. He arrived in this country as far back as 1851, being fifteen years old at the time, and shortly after was ap- prenticed to Mr. F. Frickinger, of Nassau, N. Y., piano and piano action-maker, recently deceased, with whom he served six years. After going through this installa- tion experience, Mr. Strauch continued to work in Frick- inger's shop as a journeyman piano-maker, in such con- fidential relations with his employer as a skilled piano- maker that he was admitted subsequently to partner- ship. After a couple of years Mr. Strauch felt that, with his KINDRED BRANCHES. 313 native capacity as an inventor and knowledge as a piano- maker, the metropolis was the proper field for advance- ment, and accordingly he withdrew from partnership with Mr. Frickinger and settled in New York, where he gained riper experience in various piano factories in the city. In 1867 we find him engaged in the manufacture of actions — grand, square, and upright — on West Twenty- fifth Street. In 1868 he was joined by his brother, Mr. William Strauch, when Strauch Bros, was originated. The steady and uniform success that Strauch Bros, en- joyed from their earliest association and promotion of interests may be found illustrated in their change from the original shop on West Twenty-fifth Street in March, 1873, to a larger factory on Fifteenth Street and Tenth Avenue. Later business developed so rapidly that they located their plant and- business in a five-story building — 50 X 100 feet — at T 16 and 118 Gansevoort Street. Here they continued to progress at the same ratio of advance- ment, until they settled finally in their present factory on Tenth Avenue. This is a splendidly equipped manu- factory in every respect. It contains the most improved plant known in relation to this branch of the business, in addition to special machinery originated by Mr. Peter D. Strauch, and has ample facilities for producing an im- mense quantity of high grade actions from year to year. It embraces an area of 130 feet frontage on Tenth Avenue with a depth of 100 feet, and running through the block in the rear, with 25 feet frontage on Little Twelfth and Thirteenth Streets. This sketch of their material develop- ment exemplifies in itself one phase of the history of this very honorable firm. Meanwhile a change occurred in the 314 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. composition of Strauch Bros, on January ist, 1887, owing to the withdrawal of Mr. William Strauch, since which period, however, the old firm name has been maintained. Strauch Bros, have paid much attention to the pro- motion of upright actions since commencing business, particularly since the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, when the large showing of foreign upright pianos seen there excited much interest in this style of instrument. This, it is believed, assisted in some measure to popu- larize upright pianos in this country. In conjunction with their business generally Strauch Bros, have in- vented and applied automatic machinery of a most in- genious character for facilitating the production of these actions, as well as for the purpose of improving the quality of the work, for which the most perfect lathes and accessory machinery are ordinarily needed. Among the improvements introduced by this progres- sive firm during recent years in the upright action must be mentioned their " metal hammer-butt flange." This flange is adjusted in such a manner in relation to the centre pin upon which the hammer rests and moves, that when tightened it secures a rigid bearing for the hammer- butt, and is also less liable to be affected by atmospheric changes. It is needless to reiterate the fact that in the piano a considerable part of the tone-results, in point of quality, rests upon the stability of the hammer in its bearings. Otherwise a " cracked," unstable, and disagreeable quality of tone is distinguishable, no matter how the piano may be otherwise. An improvement, such as Strauch Bros, flange, is therefore of vital im- portance, especially in uprights, where, owing to the perpendicular pose of the hammers, all the weight rests KINDRED BRANCHES. 315 upon the hammer-butt flanges. Clearly this is indis- putable ! Their " brass damper-block" on this principle is another valuable innovation, consisting of a dowel in a metal band which holds it rigidly in position, and prevents such occurrences as splitting or swelling in that region. Strauch Bros, have also recently taken out among other patents one for " separable springs in grand actions," which covers another point of improvement in relation to better repetition. In connection with these actions Strauch Brothers claim, in conjunction with properly weighted keys and skilful regulating (important factors in showing off the artistic value of any kind of action that are generally overlooked), a degree of lightness and elasticity superior to any made. Assisting in the functions and promotion of the grow- ing business of Strauch Bros, at this day, and who have since January ist, 1890, been partners in the firm, are Mr. Albert T. Strauch and Mr. William E. Strauch, two sons of Mr. Peter D. Strauch, both educated and practical young men. Mr. Albert T. Strauch was born in New York in 1865, in due time learning piano action-making ; then went into the commercial department of the estab- lishment, of which he now has charge. Mr. William E. Strauch was born in 1866, and is a practical piano and action-maker, and has control of the manufacturing de- partment. Both of these gentlemen are very popular in trade and social circles. With their practical assistance, added to the experience of Mr. Peter D. Strauch as head of the business, this firm has certainly a very hopeful future ahead. On the subject of felt-making and the piano supply 3i6 HISTORY OF TtiE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. trade generally the name of Dolge needs no introduc- tion. In approaching the subject of writing a historical and biographical sketch of Mr. Alfred Dolge, I am im- pressed with the weight of the task in more senses than one. First, there is so much to write about in relation to his various industries and bearing on the trade in short space, while, in a secondary sense, I feel that I am attempting to sketch out one of the most remarkable citizens and self-made men known in the realm of the piano business. And this can even be carried further. The word " remarkable" is used not to indicate the ma- terial status to which Mr. Dolge has risen altogether, but to emphasize the peculiar characteristics he displays as a philanthropic employer of labor, coupled with unostenta- tiousness in the exemplification of generous deeds. Mr. Dolge was born in Chemnitz, Saxony, December 22d, 1848. His family having during his early life moved to Leipzig, Mr. Dolge attended one of the excellent schools in that city up to his thirteenth year. At this period he ceased school going and became an apprentice in the shop of A. Dolge & Company, piano manufac- turers, of which his father was nominally head and other- wise the principal. Mr. Dolge's transition into practical life at this early age may be ascribed to his splendid physical development, added to his native brightness, which characteristic exhibited itself even in his remote school-days. An evidence of Mr. Dolge's industry and ability is furnished in the circumstance that, in 1865, he was awarded the diploma of merit for progress and ap-- plication at the Industrial Sunday-school by the Direc- tory appointed by the German Government to super- intend and report progress in these institutions. KINDRED BRANCHES, 317 A youth endowed with the individualistic traits so soon evidenced in Mr. Dolge naturally turned toward this continent, and it is therefore no surprise to note that in 1866 he landed on these shores at the age of seventeen. Mr. Dolge's first American experience as a piano-maker was gained inside the shop of Mr. Frederick Mathushek, where he was employed on his arrival. After a few years he returned to Germany. He soon tired of the old world, however, and although offered a good chance to become a partner in the firm of A. Dolge & Company, in his native city, he forfeited this and every other opportunity, and sailed for New York again, determining to cast his future lot in this country. Mr. Dolge on returning went to work at piano-making again, but he 'was not destined by intuition or intelli- gence to be a mere wage-earner. His first endeavor to rise from the bench now began, for having, during his residence in this country, observed that, unless in a few of the leading houses, many materials, such as felt and toning leather for hammers, used in American pianos could be improved, he realized sufficient capital to order a small supply of superior leather from Germany at first, which he speedily disposed of. He meanwhile continued to work at the bench and kept up his small leather im- portations, to. which Poehlmann's wire was added in due time. This brand of piano stringing wire was little known here only in a few large shops, and Mr. Dolge speedily acquired new customers. These little evidences .of success were so complete a testimony of Mr. Dolge's future chances in this field in an enlarged sense, that we find him entirely engaged in 1869 in importing piano materials, having said good-by to his piano-making days 3l8 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. forever. In 187 1 he began the manufacture of felt under most discouraging. conditions, but still persevered steadi- ly, until the year 1873 brought the first augury of success. The principal competitors that Mr. Dolge had, in the mean time, in this branch were Smith and Chapuis. Chapuis produced a fair quality of hammer-felt, and fearing competition, the agent of a German felt manu- facturer, who, with a French manufacturer, practically monopolized the American market at that time, bought them out and employed Chapuis in his felt factory in Germany. Their process of felt-making was most primitive, sim- ilar to the old way of making felt hats by hand. Numerous attempts had been made by various felt makers, but none were successful until, in 1871, when Alfred Dolge started. In fact, the only patents for piano hammer-felt on record are either granted or assigned to Alfred Dolge, and whatever progress has been made in piano hammer-felt manufacturing dates from the estab- lishment of the Dolge factory. Almost from the beginning he discarded the old way of making felt by hand, and employed, at least partly, machinery so successfully that he received the highest prize at the World's Exhibition at Vienna, 1873, only two years after he commenced manufacturing, and his felts were acknowledged superior to any other then made. The first radical change in the manufacturing of piano hammer-felt was successfully introduced by Dolge, in running the web direct from the carding engine to the hardening machine, for which process he was granted a patent at the time. This process secures a more thor- KINDRED BRANCHES. l\<) ough felting of the different layers of wool, in conse- quence of which the inner part of a sheet is just as solidly felted together as the outer part, a very important im- provement on the old method, whereby only the outer layers were well felted while the centre remained soft, causing the hammer to swell after it had been used a short time. The next Patent we find is No. 314,810, March 31st, 1885, granted to Dolge, which covers the process of put- ting a layer of hair mixed with wool on the outer parts of the sheet. This seems to be the only really important progress made in the manufacture of piano felt during the past forty years. It is a well-known fact that hair or fur is not only softer, but also much more durable than wool, and while almost every felt- maker has produced what is called " hair felt," yet no one but Mr. Dolge, as far as can be seen, has been able to produce a hair felt which has the necessary firmness combined with the indispensable elas- ticity. The idea of making felt of fur is admittedly not a novel one, yet Mr. Dolge deserves the credit of finding a proc- ess by which hair and wool could be so worked together that it became virtually one, the wool having the neces- sary fulling properties to give the felt the required firm- ness ; and the hair or fur being soft and velvety, produces a clear sympathetic tone, which with the ordinary felt can only be temporarily produced by pricking up the upper layers of a hammer. The next patent which we find on record is No. 363,- 217, May 17th, 1887, and is granted to Alfred Dolge for crossing the webs of wool as coming from the carding 320 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. machines direct, by which process again the dense con- nection of the wool fibre is very materially assisted, since the wool must naturally interlock in all directions, and instead of being built up by regular thick bats or layers, the felt made under this patent is built up by thin, cob- web-like layers crossing each other in right angles as they come from the carding machine, similar to the cross layers of veneers of a wrest-plank. The object of the invention is to secure better wearing quality for the felt, which seems to be accomplished, because the strings will more easily cut into a felt wherein the fibre lies in one direction, exactly on the same prin- ciple that an impression is much more easily made along the grain of the wood than it can be produced on end wood. As a natural consequence a hammer made of such felt cannot be as smoothly sand-papered (the hair will stick out in all directions), but for that very reason the ham- mer will last so much longer than the smoothly finished hammer of the old style of felt, in which the grain of the felt, so to speak, runs in the same direction as the shape of the hammer. Patent No. 364,496, June 7th, 1887, granted again to Alfred Dolge for an improvement in piano hammer-felt, by laying alternately with the wool a woollen netting into the felt for the purpose of interlocking the fibres of the felt with the meshes of the textile fabric, without destroying the elasticity of the felt, and consequently the hammer will retain its original shape even if, as it is necessary on all overstrung pianos, the hammer is bev- elled off on two sides. While the other patents mentioned have proved them- W < S > O a ■< W EH 0^ Hi o ft a i KINDRED BRANCHES. 321 selves positive improvements, and are so acknowledged by the leading manufacturers here and in Europe, no judgment can as yet be passed upon this invention. The improvement described in Patents Nos. 397,812 and 397)8i3, granted February 12th, 1889, seems to be des- tined to revolutionize the whole process of fulling felt, and because of the startling simplicity of these machines it can be understood at the first glance by any one that this most natural process of " setting" the felt, or, more properly speaking, the wool hair, must produce just ex- actly what every piano manufacturer always desires, a firm and yet elastic tenor and treble. That these setting machines will eventually make the pressing of the felt superfluous is obvious. In connection with the felt Mr. Dolge's hammer-press. Patent No. 361,144, April 12th, 1887, which is acknowl- edged as the most perfect system known, must be specially mentioned. Besides its many other excellent qualities it "draws" the felt instead of simply pressing it onto the wooden mouldings. These Dolge machines are now ex- tensively in use in American as well as in European piano factories. It is illustrated in these pages, and will re- pay study. Mr. Dolge, in addition to felt for hammer covering, manufactured rubbing and polishing felts from the be- ginning, and has carried his skilful appliance of felt to many other purposes outside the piano business. Going back to the story of his material advancement, we find Mr. Dolge, in 1874, a few years after starting, removing his producing factory to Brockett's Bridge, a village about two hundred miles from the metropolis, which now bears the significant name of Dolgeville. Presently, 32 2 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. with the new facilities opening up, Mr, Dolge began to manufacture sounding-boards, which branch has grown in recent years to immense proportions. Suffice it that Mr. Dolge's business is to-day practically a supply centre for the music trades of piano and organ building, and is the largest special business of that nature in the world. Dolgeville from one hundred inhabitants has grown up un- der the magic of Mr. Dolge's wand to seventeen hundred. Here his immense factories, fitted with rare and modern appliances suitable to the numerous industries concerned, are situated. Upward of six hundred hands are here constantly employed, well housed, and generously paid according to Mr. Dolge's methods. The great business success of Mr. Alfred Dolge is too well known to require comment at the hands of the historian. His technical contributions to the American piano trade have been briefly shown, but his position as a factor in the trade is not inconsiderable, and hardly requires reiteration. A noteworthy fact in connection with the profit-sharing scheme which Mr. Dolge has adopted in relation to his employes is that his life history, theories, and political speeches delivered in this country during the 1888 cam- paign were pamphleted and published for the section "Participation du Persones dans les Benefices" at the Paris Exposition of 1889, and drew forth warm tributes from leading French statesmen and the press, many of which were re-echoed in German and English papers. The action-manufacturing house of Wessell, Nickel & Gross is a noteworthy example of the growth of the specializing process treated of in connection with the historical development of the pianoforte on this con- tinent. Starting in 1874, at a period when the piano KINDRED BRANCHES. 323 trade and commerce generally were recovering from the effects of a great business depression caused by the panic of 1873, they rank to day in point of status and finance with the leading piano houses. And this plane has been reached in sixteen years, at a period when the keenest competition prevails in all departments of commercial activity. The founders of this concern are Mr. Otto Wessell, Mr. Adam Nickel, and Mr. Rudolph Gross, all highly practi- cal action-makers. Mr. Wessell entereji the shop of Herter at seventeen years of age, in New York, where he served an apprenticeship course. Here he became an expert and finished workman. In after years he was employed in Steinway & Sons' factory, where he had the opportunity of assisting at the finest work then known in New York, and in addition practically saw and studied the application of the action to the piano, which was a valuable experience not acquired in every action shop. Mr. Nickel and Mr. Gross are natives >of Europe. Here they learned action-making, meanwhile working in many of the best shops in the various countries. After arriving in New York they were employed in Steinway & Sons' action shop, where they formed the personal friendship for each other which led to their subsequent successful business start. The first move of the three partners in establishing their business was to secure the necessary plant and tools. Their beginning was modest and truly after Ben Frank- lin's own heart, for Mr. Wessell recounts with sturdy satisfaction the fact that during the first year it was his custom to go around to the trade and sell any actions made from week to week, then go back to the bench and 324 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. repeat the process. Presently the characteristics of their actions became known to the piano-makers. Regulators and finishers in all the shops that worked upon them began to speak highly of them. Orders piled up so fast in the office of Wessell, Nickel & Gross in the course of twelve months, that a large number of hands were added and special machinery acquired. This permitted the partners to devote more time to invention, which leisure was productive of many improvements in special ma- chinery for the manufacture of actions, which have not been published in patents for reasons easily understood, while numerous patents were taken out at an early date for action improvements, four of which are illustrated here. Upright and grand actions were largely imported in 1874, owing to the fact that hitherto the square piano was the leading instrument, and native action makers with one or two exceptions paid but little attention to the grand and upright action departmant. Starting in 1874, when the modern upright had just received its first decisive advance in popularity, owing to the skill of piano firms shown incidentally, Wessel, Nickel & Gross saw the drift of matters, and prophetically issued a cir- cular, in 1875, which read : " We beg to inform our customers and the trade that we are now, and have been since 1874, engaged in making grand repetition and upright piano actions. As was predicted, the demand for upright pianos has had a steady increase, and will be the popular instrument, as it is and has been in Europe for many years." Following this we find that, in 1877, Patent No. 188,706 was issued to them on March 20th for improvements in KINDRED BRANCHES. 325 upright actions. Their principal point of improvement in this patent consists in the invention of a compound fiange at each end of which the damper and hammer has its bearing. This flange is exemplified in the drawings. It is so formed that it rests snugly in the main rail to which the brackets are attached, as practical readers will understand, having a transverse groove in its under side which rests- in a tongue cut in the rail. By this method, it is claimed, the necessity for using two screws is obvi- ated, while greater stability is given to tjje hammer and damper. The advantage to the tone quality of pianos from greater stability of the hammer and action joints can be easily estimated, therefore this claim is very valu- able. On November 26th, 1878, they took out Patent No. 210,381 for a pedal-damper, action improvement (illustrated) for uprights. By their system of adjusting the damper-lifting bar, rattling on the bearings is entirely done away with. This is accomplished by a circular metallic plate bearing to which heavy cloth bushing is applied, which perfectly insulates the piano from any jarring in this locality, were such possible, while the pedal is given an easy elastic foot touch apart from the trap work springs, and in addition the wooden main rail, it is claimed, cannot be warped. This is merely a digest of the points of vantage claimed for this invention. Their piano dampier. Patent No. 295,317, taken out on March 18th, 1884, is another action improvement applic- able to all forms, whereby the damper-block is made more stable by a set screw, after the manner described in their specification. This makes it possible to use any kind of fine straight-grained wood in actions instead of knotty-grained wood usually selected for these pur- 326 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. poses. This is also illustrated. Another illustration is furnished of Wessell, Nickel & Gross' grand repetition action, in which improvements protected by Patent No. 366,360, issued on July izlh, 1887, appear. The novelty and advantage claimed herein consist in their peculiar method of adjusting the springs to the repetition lever and the " jack," by which more easy and prompt repeti- tion is obtained at a considerable saving in " touch" ex- penditure by the artist. While there are more advan- tages set forth in the official specification, the foregoing is a concise definition of the invention in the abstract. The drawings can be easily recognized elsewhere by the titles given, and will repay study. This firm today employs over five hundred hands which is a further illustration of rapid business advance- ment on the one hand, while it goes, moreover, to exemplify historically the growth of action-making as a special branch of piano manufacturing in this country. In regulating such a large output of first-class actions, Wessell, Nickel & Gross have to keep constantly on hand an enorm.ous supply of material of the best quality, which necessitates expert judgment and skill in stocking and selecting, while the plant and special machinery in use in their immense factory furnish in themselves a curiously interesting study for persons interested in the evolution of what deserves to be known as the American piano and the trade as it is to-day. Surely the names of Otto Wessell, Adam Nickel, and Rudolph Gross deserve special distinction in these chapters in relation to the modern aspect of American pianoforte history. And all three are admirable examples of self-made manhood, KINDRED BRANCHES. 327 liberal, upright, personally devoted one to the other, and model citizens of our great commonwealth. Besides the action makers spoken of in relation to New York, specialists in that department of the piano business sprang up toward i860 in various parts of Connecticut and other States adjoining New York. In Boston Howe and other smaller makers were known. In Milford, N. H., George L. Darracott made actions about this period. Sylvester Tower, at this time a very large and probably one of the oldest action makers in this country, was firmly established in the year given at Cambridgeport, Mass. Mr. Tower began the manufacture of piano keys, in ad- dition to melodeon and organ keys, in 1853, and later began to make piano actions. The present Tower man- ufactory in Cambridgeport covers a formidable amount of ground space, and is well fitted out in most respects. Mr. Tower is an old and popular personality in connec- tion with the piano business, and enjoys a good measure of practical success. Comstock, Cheney & Company, Essex, Conn., are very old specialists in the sphere of the piano trade. They have been manufacturing piano keys and actions since 1858, and have a large circle of customers in Boston and New York, and employ a large number of hands. The present firm of G. W. Severns & Son, Cambridge- port, Mass., has an honorable record going back to a very remote period, and are well-known manufacturers at present. Many other action and key makers have ap- peared and disappeared from time to time from 1850 in various provincial cities outside of New York and Boston, but it would be impossible to follow them out in this section. 328 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Among those in New York that make hammer cover- ing a special business at present, Schmidt & Company are evidently the oldest. This firm has a record going back to 1856, and has built up a permanent reputation in this business. The members are Messrs. Schmidt and Gerlach, both practical. Charles Pfreimer is an- other hammer-coverer of note in the metropolitan trade, whose sole business is devoted to that branch. E. Chapuis, mentioned in relation to Mr. Alfred Dolge, is reputed to have been the first to make hammer felt in the United States. Previous to his arrival in 1854 all felts were imported. The latter was a native of France, and was in business here until 1862, when he re- turned to Europe. In 1873 he came back to the United States, and began felt-making in Paterson, N. J., where he was joined by Mr. Harvey S. Crane, at present his successor, when Crane & Chapuis was formed, followed by the results intimated. H. S. Crane is yet known as a felt manufacturer. Regarding the introduction of felt in the pianoforte many misconceptions exist on the matter. It is gener- ally believed that felt was not thought of in this connec- tion until 1840, but this is a fallacy, for John Landreth spoke of a " woolly substance manufactured after the manner of a hat " so early as 1787 in his British piano- forte patent of that year. Alpheus Babcock, while in Philadelphia in 1833, took out a patent anticipating the general use of felt as a substitute for leather hammer covering, while P. F. Fischer, of London, in his patent of May 13th, 1835, spoken of in an early chapter, set forth a method of hammer-felt making in the specification, that clearly intercepted early French felt manufacturers. Wessell, Nickel & Gross' Damper Block. Patented March 18, 1884. Wbssell, Nickel & Gross' Improved Upright Action Damper-Lifting Crank showing Bearings. Patented November 36, 1878. W Hammer Flange. Patented March 20, 1677. KINDRED BRANCHES. 329 There are numerous other firms throughout the country devoted to action and kej'-making and the piano supply trade in existence, but cannot, however, be treated of here beyond those given in the foregoing order. ,«,^ CHAPTER XXV. Kindred Branches. the casting of piano plates — a concomitant branc}! —davenport & treacy their rapid advancement varnish making hotopp & company. In line with the special manufacture of actions, Iieys, and Other concomitant parts of the piano, came the man- ufacture of iron plates as a distinct branch, now grown .into a department of more than ordinary magnitude. Previous to the general acceptation of the full iron plate in New York and other manufacturing centres outside of Boston, as I have shown in a past chapter, a small hitch-pin plate, with compensating tubes or other simple modifications of the iron bracing system, was used. To prepare these primitive iron structures no special skill in working or casting iron was required, therefore it was not until the general adoption of the full solid cast- iron plate by piano-makers, combined with heavier string- ing, that the importance of good castings made by skil- ful foundry men was realized. In Boston, however, the Chickerings had developed the principle of whole-cast plates at a remote period, but previous to about i860 the stringing and scaling of pianos was so conditioned by KINDRED BRANCHES. 331 the use of thinner wire throughout, that the enormous tensional pull known to-day in pianos was not realized. Therefore effective plate casting was not a matter of such vital importance as it has become within the past fifteen years in this country, especially since the upright became popular. At this time Steinway & Sons, Chickering & Sons, Knabe & Company, and all shops doing their own castings fully appreciate this fact, and pay their foundry- work serious attention. And in recent years it has be- come an accepted acoustic belief in piano structure that not only is it necessary to have immense strength and solidity in iron plate castings, but the quality of the metal, as an aid to increased resonance, is a matter of vast importance. Unlike actions, keys, and such material parts of the piano, the great mass of manufacturers could not each maintain foundries for the casting of their own plates, and were compelled at an early period to go outside for them. While the small hitch-pin plates and such adap- tations of the plate-bracing principle were in use it was not so difficult to procure these sections, as almost any small concern could supply them ; but when the solid cast plates were adopted, followed by the introduction of modern stringing conditions, it then became a matter of some concern to procure the proper castings. The demand, therefore, in time brought to the surface specialists in foundry work, who catered for the piano trade specially. Among the most important of the first foundry men to become identified with the manufacture of pianos in this country were the Shrivers. Years ago, when they were without -competitors of any note, they ranked as the best piano-plate foundry men in the United 332 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. States. They were unquestionably a large factor in im- proving the quality of plate castings in this country. Thomas Shriver, the father of the firm of T. Shrlver & Company, was born near Westminster, Md., on Septem- ber 2d, 1789. His education was acquired in a country school presided over by an Irish schoolmaster. His family being by trade iron workers, his mind turned in that direction subsequently. In after years he became an engineer, and in designing bridges and similar work soon became conversant with the nature of the metals. He invented the elliptic springs for wagons about 1819, which have since become accepted over the world, and was the author of many subsequent inventions of great moment. In later years he was owner of an omnibus line in Philadelphia, but the adoption of street cars super- seded that mode of conveyance. He then moved to New York, and in company with his son Walter established a foundry for fine castings and piano plates. Meanwhile this much-respected citizen passed away, leaving a large family of clever children. The firm soon became pre- eminent in the latter department, but within the past ten years new competitors arose, and while the first-named house was conservatively reposing on its past record, other firms appeared and began to take possession of the rield by virtue of enterprise, push, and absolute capability. Prominent among piano-plate founders at this period stand the firm of Davenport & Treacy, whose extraor- dinary rise into eminence in a comparatively short space of time is unprecedented in trade annals. This firm is composed of Mr. John Davenport and Mr. Daniel F. Treacy. The personal history of the former illustrates the origin of the house. KTNDRED BRANCHES. 333 Mr. John Davenport is a native of Stamford, Conn., where he was born in August, 1840. He comes of Revo- lutionary stock. Mr. Davenport received a careful pre- liminary education, and entered Yale College subse- quently, from which he graduated with high honors. At the age of nineteen he entered the office of the Still Water Iron Works at Stamford in the employ of his father, who was the proprietor. He remained here until 1863, when he withdrew. Meantime he had an interest in the business which he retained up to 1880. We find, however, that Mr. Davenport was not idle, for in 1863 he went into partnership with a Mr. Belts, and started large machine works under the firm name Davenport & Betts, for the purpose of manufacturing light machinery and tools for boring oil-wells, then in much demand. In 1866 he retired from active business, and for the two following years remained in private life, devoting himself to laying out the grounds and building his present beautiful home on the shores of the Sound. To one of Mr. Davenport's training and ambition inac- tivity was impossible, and in i868 he purchased the busi- ness of the Brown Scale Works and Foundry, situated on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street in New York. The manufacture of scales was abandoned in 1872, when the foundry works were moved to Jersey City, and in line with larger and better facili- ties, a successful foundry and general jobbing business was soon developed. In 1873 a significant event in the personal and commercial history of Mr. Davenport oc- curred. This was his first meeting with Mr. Daniel F Treacy, his present partner. In this year the latter was engaged as superintendent of the foundry works con- 334 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. trolled by Mr. Davenport, after a few moments' conver- sation, during which both partners — between whom a steady and unbroken friendship has existed for seventeen years — met for the first time. Subsequently Mr. Treacy became an equal partner in the business, when the firm of Davenport & Treacy came into being. Mr. Treacy is a man of remaricable professional and scientific attainments. He is, first, a practical iron moulder, and in addition possesses a deep knowledge of metallurgy and all scientific and experimental depart- ments related to foundry work and metal working in general. Many composition metals have been originated by him for bearing purposes, plates, and a variety of objects only capable of being fully appreciated by en- gineers and metal workers. As Davenport & Treacy stand to-day the largest producers of refined piano- plates in the world, the assistance of such a man in im- proving the resistance and resonance quality of piano- plates is invaluable to the trade. Mr. Treacy was born in the British province of New Brunswick. In his youth he was apprenticed to the moulding trade in Chatham, N. B. In exactly three months after his term of apprenticeship had ended Mr. Treacy's family moved to St. Louis, Mo , where he ac- quired a varied experience in the Corandelet Iron Works in that city. We next discover him in the Government employ. His subsequent experience served to make him restless and disinclined to settle down to one occu- pation or one city. He now drifted considerably around, working in the best shops in the principal cities, mean- while having no difficulty in always finding good posi- tions, owing to his skill. In this way he happened to find KINDRED BRANCHES. 335 himself in the whaling town of New Bedford, Mass., in 1866. Having been brought up in early life within easy reach of " old ocean," young sailoring aspirations com- bined with restlessness induced him to ship on board a whaling vessel bound on a three years' cruise. Before the term was completed the ship was disabled and re- turned to port for repairs, while Mr. Treacy again sailed on a second voyage, which came near being his last ocean trip, for the crew were cast away on one of the West Ind- ian islands, from which he emerged safe, however. In 1870 he was back at his old business, and held the posi- tion of foreman of the Acushnet Iron Foundry in New Bedford, He subsequently moved to Brooklyn and started business, hoping to be able to find scope for his professional originality as a metal and iron founder ; but while attending too much to the inventive side, the com- mercial side suffered, and he was obliged to retire. After this he entered the employ of Mr. Davenport, as indicat- ed. It is sixteen years ago since this firm began to make piano-plate castings for the late W. A. Conant. The latter took the plates unfinished to his shop, where he drilled and finished them, and supplied the trade. They held all Conant's work and the trade of his successors until 1884, when they became direct caterers for the piano manufacturing houses. They were located at this period in Jersey City. In this year exactly two hundred and seventy-five plates were cast, refined, drilled, and fin- ished in their shop. They now settled down to make a specialty of piano- plates and hardware. With the excellent facilities at their disposal, assisted by their generous commercial enter- prise and a solid backing of sound practical knowledge 336 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. of all the requirements necessary to produce the finest grade of plates, to which sixteen years' experience may be added, immediate success followed. Success is such a handy word, and so often used that it hardly expresses the situation in this case. The amount of success that has fallen to the lot of this enterprising house in six years may be easily estimated by the fact that from two hundred and seventy-five plates in 1884, their first year, they developed up a patronage so vast that in 1889, as their books indicate, they produced the enormous quan- tity of sixteen thousand plates, and a correspondingly large output of piano hardware. Davenport & Treacy, finding their works in Jersey City inadequate for their growing business, in 1887 selected a site in Stamford, Conn., where they erected the pres- ent foundry works. The first move of Davenport & Treacy was to locate their extensive finishing rooms and city offices at 444 and 446 West Sixteenth Street, in New York, but these additions were found of little assistance. Accordingly they determined to secui-e adequate facili- ties both for present and future purposes, and selected their present site in Stamford, on which they began their buildings. This location was chosen after some deliber- ation, because it places them within easy access of the piano manufacturers by rail and boat. Their foundry works reach to the water's edge. Here they have unex- ceptionable advantages, and employ a steamer specially to ply between New York and Stamford, carrying plates and bringing back the crude iron used in the process of plate casting, as well as material for general purposes. Their buildings have a street frontage of 475 feet, while they cover four acres of ground. A sectional ground IL .. rt o ^ L ^ r 3A0 Svj 1^ JO jS; c o 1 X o to ^ ■^ I - O "5 ° - o o o to q-1 X o in Q yva/ _I , /SA .5/sIJQ loo OQOOl 5tt CM _! 5-0 t-avjOJ y>Mv'g-UOJt -"ij V^H&^g ^ CO P O ifi ^S£ p in .!2 '^ p: o ^0 /\?/v\ ^AIJQ ;a o o fl" M o n o < a (U 6 M o 15 m ■< Q 1^ o Hi Oh O O O <; o KINDRED BRANCHES. 337 plan of this colossal department of piano manufacturing is honored by a page-plate illustration elsewhere. Da- venport & Tracey have, moreover, anticipated further progressions by securing ample space in reserve for en- largements, while they have been constantly adding to their stock of plant and outside facilities since 1887. In connection with piano hardware they have improved polishing and nickel-plating machinery for refining and coating brackets, pedal guards, pedal, agraffes, and all work of that character. Apart from piano materials, they produce superior castings in composition metals — brass, copper, and phosphor-bronze — for scientific and general purposes, from one-half ounce up to two thou- sand pounds. Their foundry also contains one of the most complete pulley-moulding machine plants in this country, by which they are enabled to produce any size pulley from eight inches up to one hundred and forty- four inches diameter, with any desired width of face. During past years they have filled large orders from the National Government, and in 1889 they made two hundred thousand pounds of composition castings alone for the National cruisers now in course of construction. Added to the personal supervision of Mr. Treacy, who looks carefully after the mechanical departments, besides attending to other important duties of the business, Davenport & Treacy employ the most expert foremen in all departments, so as to insure the highest possible re- sults. Under no other conditions could such a vast business be successfully conducted. Mr. Treacy has been a diligent student of the piano for several years from the mechanical standpoint, and incidentally of res- onance in plate development, and much of the success 338 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. that has fallen to the share of the firm as plate founders is due to his ability and personal attention. Mr. Trea- cy's skill has enabled the firm to supply plates from mere drawings in themselves apart from models for casting purposes. In this departure they claim to stand alone. An important fact in relation to Davenport & Treacy is that they have their iron regularly tested at Stevens' Institute, Hoboken, and are thoroughly in touch with scientific progress in all departments of metallurgy, metal founding and working. Mr. Treacy, I must add, has figured somewhat in the scientific journals devoted to metallurgy, iron, and foundry work as an original thinker and progressionist. One of his recent articles on the use of coke versus coal in smelting processes com- manded much attention, and was copied very generally in England and elsewhere. In sketching out the history of Davenport & Treacy and their unprecedented rise into an important place in relation to piano manufacturing in this country, a most interesting chapter is unfolded. Both gentlemen, in ad- dition to possessing high business qualifications, have always taken pains to merit the good-will and esteem of the piano trade and the musical press, and are highly es- teemed as private citizens. Within the domain of their business interests they are highly progressive and liberal. They have succeeded only by honorable methods, and are altogether a firm entitled to eminent esteem and fa- vor, and are no small factor in the statistics of piano his- tory. American piano manufacturers found it necessary at an early period, owing to climatic influences, to adopt a means of polishing and preserving the surface of pianos KINDRED BRANCHES. 339 different from the methods in general use thrsughout Europe. The introduction of a reference to American varnish in this section has, therefore, a specifil mean- ing, apart from the fact that varnish is a material part of the stock-in-trade of the piano manufacturer, and has no small bearing on the appearance of the instrument. A piano, we must remember, has an sesthetic and artistic value as a resident of the drawing-room independent of its musical qualities, and the varnish manufacturer con- tributes much to the external beauty of the instrument. Our early manufacturers of pianos found that not only was it necessary to adopt the means now in use for dec- orating and securing a comparatively permanent lustre in their instruments externally, but it was discovered that every varnish will not produce equal results, and that it required scientific and subtle knowledge on the part of varnish manufacturers in order to produce var- nishes suitable for the demands of the piano manufac- turer, and capable of being handled throughout with confidence by workmen. Among the first to make var- nishes in this country was P. B. Smith of New York, who was well known in relation to the piano trade as far back as 1830. Later Tilden & Hulburt appeared.. New- ark, N J., became a centre for varnish manufactur- ing about 1840, when the term " Newark varnishes" was originated. At present Newark has one of the lar- gest varnish manufacturing establishments in this coun- try, which is maintained through other branches of art and industry where this article is used, although the piano trade is also a contributor. Many well-known varnish houses are known to-day in relation to piano manufacturing through the musical ■34° HISTORY OF THE AMERICA!^ PIANOFORTE. press, and require no enumeration here — all good and reliable firms, who supply their article to coach-builders, railroads, and other departments of industry largely. The firm of Hotopp & Company has been known in rela- tion to the piano trade in this country since 1854 as large and reliable makers of varnishes for piano manu- • facturers" use. Their business at this period is principal- ly supported by the piano trade, and in this connection they claim to occupy a special place in relation to piano manufacturing. To use their exact words, which are taken -from a communication sent : " In fact, we are the only varnish-makers who have developed and grown up with the American pianoforte trade. We do a more extensive business with piano-makers in this particular branch than any other varnish houses. By this we do not mean to say that we excel in point of production, as there are more extensive works ; but the trade of most other var- nish houses depends largely upon other sources of sup- port, such as the carriage trade and all that. Hence it is why we can and do claim to be a part of the piano art business." For the- special uses of piano-makers, Hotopp & Com- pany carry a large stock of "aged" varnishes, for which they have won a reputation which goes back to 1854. Steinway & Sons were for ten consecutive years large customers of Hotopp & Company ; Weber, Steck & Com- pany, the old firm of Lighte & Bradbury, and many other prominent piano makers of that period were among the first on their books, and to-day they claim to supply every house of prominence with their piano varnishes, and ship a large quantity to Europe to manufacturers of pianofortes for extreme climates. In this respect this old KINDRED BRANCHES. 341 firm occupies a peculiar place. A large number of Euro- pean pianos going to India, Australia, the British Col- onies generally, and imported into the United States from abroad are provided with a substantial coating of the Hotopp & Company's varnish for protective and decorative purposes, as many European manufacturers recognize the necessity of preparing and finishing pianos on the American principle and by the use of American varnish, so as to stand severe climatic conditions. Tlie rise of Hotopp & Company is evidenced by the circum- stance that their manufactory in Hoboken, N J., covers 100 by 25 feet on Marshall Street and 100 by 50 feet on First Street, with a frontage of 100 feet facing the West Shore Railroad. Here one can see another incidental illustration of the diversity and range of the industries developed and maintained by the piano business in this country, and Hotopp & Company deserve recognition in this connection, owing to the claims they advance as specialists to the piano trade. This large building is equipped with the most improved plant, and although admittedly not the largest, is second to none in point of facilities for producing the best grade of varnish known. Much of the success of this firm is due to the fact that those composing it are practically conversant with the theoretical and technical side of their business, as well as the working application of varnish to the piano, its diseases and remedies, and every point of practical value necessary to render them entirely capable and qualified. The business was founded by Mr. William Hotopp in 1854. Mr. Henry Hotopp, the technical member of the present firm, is a native of Hanover, Germany, where he was born in 1837. He came to this country at an early 342 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. age, and has been a practical varnish-maker since his eighteenth year. In 1856 he entered the firm, and up to this date has attended to the manufacturing department and superintends the works personally, thus insuring the best results. • Another member of the firm, known among piano manufacturers as an attentive and courteous busi- ness man, Mr. William F. Braun, is also practically ac- quainted with varnish-making and the precise qualities necessary for piano use. Mr. Braun was born in Jersey City in 1856. In January, 1872, he mtered the employ of Hotopp & Company, and by dint of ability and busi- ness courtesy worked himself up to the position of head salesman. In November, 1887, his services to the house were generously recognized by a membership and share in the firm. Mr. Braun manages the outside business and attends to the financial department of Hotopp & Company, Many facts given here in relation to varnish have been contributed by this gentleman, as he is thor- oughly conversant with the business and everything con- cerning it. I need not add that, in achieving artistic results in var- nish work in pianos, much depends upon good varnish. Yet a great deal depends upon intelligent workmen, proper methods, and a number of conditions which can only be regulated by practical varnish foremen in piano shops. These are, of course, recognized facts, therefore varnish-makers cannot always be blamed for ba4 results coming from the latter causes. Hotopp & Company, however, claim to assist perfect results in piano varnish work by their method of manufacture. The foregoing sketch will, no doubt, be interesting in connection with another section of the supply business. KINDRED BRANCHES. 343 and has a bearing on the modern aspect of piano manu- facturing. There are several other large houses existing that have for many years been known to the piano trade through the press, but it is a pleasant task to bring into promi- nent notice an old firm that has always filled a modest though not less useful place in the great industry of piano manufacturing. CHAPTER XXVI. Musical and Trade Journalism. the influence of a special press on piano manufac- turing — early editors— mason brothers and the "musical review" HAGEN HENRY C. WATSON — THE " MUSICAL chronicle" — THE " TIMES" THE "AMERI- CAN ART journal" WILLIAM M. THOMS — JOHN C. FREUND— THE " AMERICAN MUSICIAN*' — HARRY E. FREUND AND "music and DRAMA" — C. A. WELLES — MESSRS. BLU- MENBERG & FLOERSHEIM A WESTERN PIONEER, O. L. FOX THE CHICAGO " INDICATOR" GENERAL REMARKS. In the development of the pianoforte business in this country, within the past half century in particular, the musical press has played no insignificant part. Ameri- can musical journals since 1835, when the American Mu- sical Journal was founded, have been largely identified with the music trades, and in promoting these excellent factors in musical education by practical support, piano and organ manufacturers have rendered art culture in the United States an incalculable benefit. Meanwhile, the music trades gained dignity and force from a special press, while a spirit of professional fraternity and mutual good-will was fostered. Practical benefit was derived, ' >/ Henry C. Watson. MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 345 however, aside from the sentimental, through the medium of musical journals. The advantages of newspapers to the purposes of so- ciety and business require no elaboration here. I have to deal with special journalism, to which department of literature the musical press belongs. In addition to newspapers, special class journalism is a necessity of the age ; otherwise, according to natural law in sociology, it would not exist and thrive. With the growth of our nineteenth-century civilization, the intercommunication of the human race by electricity, railways, steamships, a more perfect mail service, and a thousand other phases of progress, the newspaper proper became necessarily devoted to the reflection and circula- tion of passing events and the multifarious details of life in a generalized and abbreviated form. It was, therefore, discovered soon after the beginning of the century that every important branch of art, science, and industry would be benefited by a special journal devoted to chron- icling new improvements in the business and personal affairs of that separate branch. Special journalism be- gan in the art field first, then industries and trades fol- lowed suit in time. Now it is considered indispensable and necessary that every trade should have its own or- gan. Music trade journalism, unlike most other branches of special journalism, is simply an evolution from musi- cal journalism proper, for we can trace the relation of the music trades to musical papers back to the first peri- odical published in this country. Passing Henry C. Watson's Musical Chronicle, founded in 1843— spoken of in his biographical sketch— the Musical Review, a weekly, founded by the Mason Brothers in 1853, dealt largely 346 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. in trade material. Here we can find modern music trade journalism anticipated to a large extent during several of the first'years of its existence. Substantial reports of improvements, personal sketches, and periodical statistics of manufacturing appeared, while all the standard piano manufacturers of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Albany advertised. This journal passed into the hands of Mr. Theodore Hagen in later years, and continued as a weekly. It ceased after the death of this clever musi- cian in 1871. Meanwhile, the first music trades organ, having a distinct title, to emphasize its functions was started in 1875. In addition to Mr. Hagen and Mason Brothers, Mr. John S. Dwight, the well-known Boston musical critic, iowyxditA Dwight' s Journal of Music in that city in 1851, which had a long lease of existence, and was incidentally connected with publishing music. This was a semi-monthly, and published by the music house of Oliver Ditson & Company. Among the early Ameri- can editors of musical journals and critics associated more or less with the progress of the piano in this coun- try, the name of Henry C. Watson is entitled to an important place. His name has some more direct con- nection with the pianoforte business at this date, ow- ing to the fact that he founded the American Art Jouriml in 1863, at present vigorously alive and representing the best interests of the piano trade under the able and up- right editorial management of Mr. Wm. M. Thoms. Mr. Watson, moreover, had published since 1843 up to the time of founding the Art Journal several musical papers in succession, all Supported largely by the profession and advertising patronage of piano manufacturers, and in the pages of his various musical publications are to be MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 347 found able reviews of new improvements appearing in the piano, togetiier with biographical and current notes in relation to kindred subjects. More than this, he offi- ciated as one of the judges at various exhibitions of the American Institute from 1840 up to 1865, and was known as a writer and musical critic of rare acumen in every- thing that concerned tone production in piano perform- ances. Henry C. Watson was born in London on November 4th, 1818. His father was chorus master at Covent Gar- den, and an excellent musician and composer, while his mother was equally gifted ; therefore the musical precoc- ity that Watson exhibited while in his youth was legiti- mately inherited. He was gifted with a voice of rare sweetness as a boy, and between nine and ten made his- first appearance at Covent Garden in " Oberon," in the character of a fairy. He immediately attracted distin- guished attention, and became from thenceforward a public favorite. He devoted himself to study as he grew older, yet he was continually before the public, and be- ckme intimate with theory and composition while very young. When Watson reached the age of seventeen his voice disappeared. This loss was to him a heavy aflflic- tion. Being compelled to turn his talent to account in other directions, he followed up the study of music, and in time essayed composition. Meantime he developed a strong literary and poetic faculty, which he afterward cultivated with such excellent results. At twenty-three he sought these shores His object was the object of nearly every matured person that has ever landed here from the discovery of the Continent downward — viz., to seek out a new field for self-advancement and for his talents. 348 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. When Mr. Watson landed in New York in 1841 became armed with letters of introduction to the leading literary lights of the metropolis, and in time was in high favor with such celebrities as Bryant, George P. Morris, Parke Benjamin, and Horace Greeley. Under Mr. Benjamin he first found a position in American literature as musical critic of the New World, then edited by Horace Greeley and Mr. Benjamin. The scholarly, cultivated, and spirit- ed tone of his criticism, general writings, and poetic effusions soon became the talk of society and literary circles in New York, and there was a widespread demand for the services ot his pen. During this period he es- sayed lyrics for song purposes, and published many songs, which faculty of versatility added to his fame. He sub^ sequently engaged in some journalistic ventures in part- nership with many of the well-known lights of literary New York of the past. The Broadway Journal was one of these feats. It counted among its editors such a celeb- rity as Edgar A. Poe. Watson's personal influence drew the advertising patronage of at least eight piano firms to this journal. These periodicals not being sustained by sufficient capital, they necessarily became obsolete. His first venture in musical journalism was the Musical Chronicle, founded in 1843. This brought him into com- munication with the piano manufacturers, and it was principally through the advertising patronage of Gilbert & Company, Boston, Jonas Chickering, Boston, Stod- art & Dunham, Worcester, and Pirsson, New York, Conrad Meyer, Philadelphia, and other piano houses that he was enabled to spread the light of musical liter- ature throughout the country. This was the first musi- cal journal that directly bridged over the line between MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 349 the pianoforte manufacturers and the musical and artistic world, and the fact deserves recognition. Not for selfish or pecuniary reasons, however, was this union effected, but to benefit both sides, by showing that the progress of musical art and that of the pianoforte as a musical in- strument were linked indissolubly, and all his writings were couched in this vein. In the first number of this journal can be found letters from Boston describing the condition of the piano trade there at the time, and per- sonal facts about the principal shops, together with inci- dental trade notes. When this venture ceased the Ameri- can Musical Times followed, and drevv its advertising support from the same source. Next came Watson's Philharmonic Journal, then the American Art Journal, which has been brought down to the present time, as indicated. As critic of the New York Tribune ixom \^()j, to 1866, Mr. Watson's personal influence brought to that paper a patronage of over thirty thousand dollars, a large part of which came from the pianoforte and kin- dred trades. Chief among the many positions he occu- pied in New York may be placed the fact that he was the first editor-in-chief of Frank Leslie' s Illustrated Newspaper. His connection with American music was pre-eminent- ly significant. He was one of the founders of the Phil- harmonic Society. He organized the Mendelssohn Union ; he organized the great Mendelssohn Memorial Concert, which was held at Castle Garden, at which over sixteen thousand people were present. He wrote the libretto of " Lurline," Wallace's well known opera, and was identified with a host of successful projects in relation to American musical art and artists. Up to 1874 he was devoted to the success of his last venture, the 350 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. American Art Journal, and from that time forward his health declined. He died on December 4th, 1875, aged fifty-seven years, much regretted in professional and social circles, after a residence of thirty-four years in this country. Among H. C. Watson's works he pub- lished three hundred songs, piano pieces, glees for mixed voices and part songs for male voices, hymns, Te Deums, and aRomanza for the violin that was famous in its time. He also published the " Ladies' Glee Book," the " Ma- sonic Musical Manual " — being organist of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York — and " Simple Elements of Musical Instruction." Mr. Watson also occupied the position of musical editor of the New York Albion, also the Mirror, with N. P. Willis and George P. Morris, the author of that universally known song, " Woodman, spare that tree." Mr. William M. Thorns, whose handsome portrait ap- pears elsewhere, the present editor and publisher of the American Art Journal, is the successor of H. C. Wat- son, and was a protege of that distinguished critic and editor. Mr. Thoms, whose significant connection with musical journalism and the music trades isamatterof twenty- three years' standing, is a typical New Yorker. His first entrde into musical journalism and literature dates from 1867. In this year he joined the American Art Jour 7ial as a successor to Mr. Alfred Pirsson, son of James Pirsson, the piano manufacturer. He became publisher immediately. Mr. Thorns received his first inspirations in literature from being thrown into the society of some of the leading literary people of the city, who frequented the sanctum of the Art Journal, and contributed to its col- M USICAL AND TRADE JO URN A LI SM. 35 1 umns. Among the people who influenced his artistic and literary tendencies in these first years of his professional life were Mr. H C. Watson and Mr. Cornelius Mat- thews, a distinguished writer recently deceased, who drafted the first American international copyright bill. To these two may be appended Henri L. Stuart, a right hand associate of Horace Greeley, an indefatigable worker and promoter in connection with public enter- prises of an industrial and political character, who first in- troduced the pia-noforte into the New York public schools ; " Barry Gray," author of " Cakes and Ale at the Wood- bine ;" Charles G. Rosenberg, the poet, painter, and dramatist, and author of " You Have Heard of Them," being a series of personal rhemoirs of stage celebrities ; Dr. John Savage, the poet ; James McCarroll, the ency- clopedist, author of " Madeline and other Poems ;" John W. Watson, of " Beautiful Snow" fame ; Ingersoll Lock- wood, who was the United States Minister to Hanover during Lincoln's administration, author of " The Perfect Gentleman," " Legal Don'ts," and the child's classic, " Little Baron Trump ;" Colonel Thomas R Thorp, the art critic and authorof " The First Piano in Arkansas," and A. J. Goodrich; the theorist and author of " Complete Musical Analysis." During his long career, moreover, he has come in close relations with all the well-known people connected with creative and reproductive art. Mr. Thorns became known as a versatile and dignified writer on literary, art, musical, and kindred subjects, and filled a most important post in the management of the Art Journal in an unprecedentedly short space of time. His rapid advance in literature was considerably as- sisted by a good early education, studious habits, and a 352 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. splendid vocabulary of acquired information that he had stored away previous to settlin-g down to serious literary work. To these qualifications may be added a thorough knowledge of musical, art, and dramatic forms, and fine aesthetic and artistic perceptions, the latter resulting from his fine temperament, special education, and natural in- tuitions. During 1S70 and 1871 Mr. Thorns published and edited the Journal of the Day, the first daily musical paper ever attempted in the United States, a bright, dignified publi- cation, which met with singular success among cultivated people ; but it was in advance of the times, consequently he ceased its publication after 1871. In 1873 and 1874 he embarked on a new venture, the Musical Monthly, a thirty-six page quarto publication edited on a high plane, and devoted to the advancement and uplifting of musical art as a whole; but particularly devoted to the cause of American music and its concomitants. In 1877 he published the World of Art — Its Eminent Men and Women, a superb art publication, edited in such a very superior, earnest, and scholarly style that he was warmly con- gratulated by the best journals in this country and Eu- rope, and commended for his work throughout. In the mean time, his duties in relation to the American Art Jour- nal were not discontinued, and after 1877 he gave his whole attention to this publication. From 1867 upward he has been thrown constantly into the society of piano manufacturers and members of the trade, and learned to recognize all the phases of the business, its history and personalities, as time progress- ed. This has done much to insure the universally rec- ognized stability and permanence of his publication. MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 353 About 1876 the American Art Journal set aside an en- larged technical department for the purposes of trade matter, after the manner followed out at present. Week- ly notes about the movements of agents out of town and manufacturers were introduced, together with specifica- tions and illustrations of new piano and organ patents, statistics of musical instrument exports and imports, portraits of manufacturers, scientific articles upon im- provements and construction, and many other general methods at present in adoption in trade journals. Meanwhile, in the order of events, competitors sprang up, which Mr. Thoms has never been insular enough to regard with feelings of envy, for he is cognizant of the tights and liberties of other citizens, and he is modest enough to be great in this respect. On April 14th, 1888, the twenty-fifth anniversary edition of the American Art Journal appeared and gave consider- able impetus to its standing and patronage. The young manufacturers and musicians were brought to recognize the age and character of the paper on this occasion, for a special emphasis was necessarily laid upon its prolonged life and prestige as an organ devoted to the interests of music, artists, and the music trades. In this issue the ed- itor pays a graceful and generous tribute to the founder, Mr. H. C. Watson, in acknowledgment of his personal indebtedness to the deceased. As a tribute to Mr. Wat- son's services to American art and literature, and in honor of the man personally, I cannot help appending a few sentences, which are distinguished by a high scholarly tone and a characteristic atmosphere of sin- cerity, while they exemplify the writer's power. " After more than twelve years, Watson's memory lingers like 23 354 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. the remembrance of sweet flowers. He was an artist with the lofty temperament and high taste that attach to the artist in the truest sense. He was a poet, with a mind full of the sweet fancies and pure thoughts that in- spire one to high literary endeavor and expression. He was a man of affairs in that he was alive to all the rare opportunities of a busy life, and developed and rounded his talents to a degree which was to be attained only by one of high and pure ambition. He seemed never to forget that he had been sent into the world to do good, to increase the happiness and welfare of his fellow- beings, and to hold up to the world the bright and sweet side of life." Although the veteran of the weekly musical trade press, Mr. Thorns is yet one of the youngest, having reached only his thirty -eighth year. By his marriage with a distinguished and cultivated lady several years ago, Mr. Thorns received a stimulus to higher efforts in literature and art. Mrs; Clara E. Thorns is an eminent pianist, with a reputation won on two continents. At eight she was starred as a piano prodigy throughout this country. In 1873 she went to Vienna, where she studied piano, harmony, and sing- ing under Proch. In due time she appeared in Aus- tria-Hungary, Germany, and Poland with distinguished success. After a six years' absence abroad she returned home and repeated her successes in her native country, where she has established well-deserved reputation as a. virtuoso, artiste, and musician. On her marriage she retired for several years, but returned to professional life in 1887. Siace this advent she has won back her old place. Mrs. Clara E. Thoms was born in Minnesota, MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 355 and comes on the paternal side of old Revolutionary stock, one of her ancestors being General Putnam, while on her mother's side she is descended from- a family of three brothers who came over with Lafayette. Mrs. Thorns, aside from her musical and artistic genius, is a lady of fine literary tastes, culture, and gen- eral breadth of character. As one of our most distin guished modern American pianists, she belongs to the group of eminent virtuosi who have contributed so much during recent years to raise the character of the Ameri- can pianoforte. Mr. W. M. Thoms is assisted in his duties at this date by Mr. Guido Hecker, a familiar personality in relation to the American Art Journal. Mr. Hecker is a native of New York, and is a son of Mr. Carl Hecker, the eminent portrait painter and art teacher. The " Carl Hecker Art School," of which the latter is director, is a celebrated institution that has furnished some of the ablest artists known in the high and the industrial ai'ts in this country. Mr. Guido Hecker's popularity is widespread in art and musical circles. He has inherited much of the family genius, though in a literary direction. Mr. John C. Freund, at present one of the editors of the American Musician, is another remarkable figure in this sphere of recent pianoforte and musical history. His connection with this department of journalism dates back to 187s, when he founded the Music Trade Review, re- ferred to elsewhere, the first weekly with a distinctive title published in this country devoted to the music trades. Mr. Freund's early tendencies were literary and musical to a large degree. Constant association with the pianoforte as a student, besides a knowledge of mechan- 356 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. ics and natural philosophy acquired in his college days, made the literature of the instrument and its manufac- ture a labor of love, while these acquirements have been eminent qualifications in his professional career as a music trade editor, apart from the standard reputation he enjoys as a critic and feuilletonist. Mr. Freund's principal fault is said to have hitherto been a magnanimous spirit of lavishness, which all his journalistic ventures have indicated in their general get- up and contents. This is a pardonable thing, and at times commendable. The worst sufferer, however, by 'Over-generosity or philanthropy of that unproductive mature is the philanthropist usually. John C. Freund, whose distinguished face graces these pages, was born in London in 1848 of German parents. His father, a most eminent physician, and an authority of note in scientific and medical lines, was an Austrian, who settled in London, where he built up a large practice among the titled classes and aristocracy. He was pro- fessionally a philanthropist, for through his personal efforts he raised money to establish the great German Hospital in London, which Germans in London re- member as a great deed. At the Crimean War he was one of the principal medical officers in the service of the allied armies. Throughout his life he enjoyed the friendship of many of the most eminent people in Eu- rope. Mr. J. C. Freund's mother, a distinguished lady, whose recent death in 1887 will be remembered, came to London very young, being adopted by her uncle, a noted scholar and linguist in the service of the Foreign Office. This gentleman, Mr. Freund's granduncle, is said to have spoken and written fifteen languages with perfect MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 3S7 ease. He was deputed to accompany Lord Macart- ney's first embassy to China as interpreter, so as to facil- itate intercourse with the natives. Mrs. Amelia Lewis- Freund, Mr. Freund's mother, inherited much of the linguistic genius of her uncle, and was known as a lady of extraordinary accomplishments — which included sci- ence—and great strength of character. In music she equally excelled. Mr. Freund was a favored mortal in the sense that he was born, unlike so many others of the race, under the most favorable conditions, and with the figurative silver spoon in his mouth, for his father enjoyed a splendid in- come from his practice. It is no surprise hence to know- that he received an unexceptionable education. He is a graduate of Oxford and London universities. In his college days and after he was known as an athlete. He studied painting under good masters, and became a law- yer. The step from law to journalis.m is very brief, as many of the leading London newspaper men are notably lawyers ; so it is we find Mr. Freund enjoying an early reputation as editor of the Oxford University magazine, the Dark Blue, in 1870, 187 1, and 1873. Tom Hughes, of "Tom Brown's Schoolboy Days" fame; Gilbert, the librettist and satirist ; Charles Reade, and Rossetti were among the contributors during this period. As a dram- atis;t Mr. Freund is well known. Mr. Henry Labou- chere, of 7V«M, brought out " The Undergraduate," Mr. Freuiid's first play, in 1871, at the Queen's Theatre, Lon- don, which the press received very warmly. In 1872 he arrived in New York, and contributed subsequently to several leading journals and maga- zines. He bought out the Arcadian in 1873, and en- 358 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. gaged a brilliant staff of specialists, such as Mr. Stephen Fiske, A. C. Wheeler, Montague Marks, and others. The paper had a great circulation, but in 1875 Mr. Freund sold it to Mr. George Butler, a nephew of General Butler. Mr. Freund became known in 1875 as a music trade editor. In this year he started the Music Trade Review, devoted to the art, its literature, and the trades. Mr. Louis Engel, at present of Yates' London World, a celebrated musical critic, was engaged on this journal for some time. In 1878 this became the Musical Times; then it developed into the Musical and Dramatic Times. In 1880 Mr. Freund, in consequence of overwork, withdrew, but in i88i he had recovered, and was in the field again with Music, which presently be- came Music and Drama. In 1884 Freund's Weekly ap- peared, which subsequently became Music and Drama. Being by instinct a dramatist, and possessing a fine elo- cutionary, backed up by vocal training, Mr. Freund was induced to go on the stage. He opened McVicker's Theatre in Chicago with a new play, " True Nobility," in which he made his dibut in a star part in 1885. Meanwhile, he was on the stage for two years, playing leading parts with Mayo and Madame Janish. As a lecturer, Mr. Freund also shone. In 1886 we find that his lecture " Before and Behind the Footlights," de- livered in Boston, secured no less than sixteen columns of press notices in that city alone. After this temporary absence from journalism Mr. Freund returned to th*e field in 1887, when he became an editor of the American Musician, which position he has held up to the present time with significant results. Apart from the foregoing, Mr. Freund has enjoyed a MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 359 distinguished connection with music trade history, and has a large circle of friends. Mr. John Travis Quigg, Mr. Freund's co-editor on the American Musician, is a native of Philadelphia. He is an accomplished musician, an acute and scholarly critic of literature, drama, and the arts, and a journalist of varied and eminent experience. Personally he is a gentleman possessed of many charming traits, and is manly and outspoken to a fault. He became the editor of the American Musician in 1885. This paper was founded hy the Musical Union in 1884, and was published in an insignificant form under another title. Mr. Quigg as- suming charge gave it a new status and character, owing to the influence of his pen and general editorial capac- ity. In 1887 the American Musician became an inde- pendent journal under Mr. Quigg's management. The acquisition of Mr. Freund in this year and the collabora- tion of two such clever people resulted in building up the present successful weekly, which has a large circulation and prestige. The piano trade has helped this success and given the paper permanency and character. Freund's Music and Drama is another weekly devoted to the interests of the music trades and the piano busi- ness. Mr. Harry E. Freund is the proprietor and editor of this journal. He is a native of London, where he was born May 19th, 1863, and is a brother of Mr. John C. Freund. He received a first-class education, and adopted journalism after completing his scholastic stud- ies. Mr. Freund came to this country in 1880 and suc- ceeded to the interests of Music and Drama upon the temporary retirement of Mr. J. C. Freund, He is a 360 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE.- popular young editor, and highly esteemed throughout piano circles, professional and commercial. The Music Trades Review, founded in 1879 by Mr. Charles Avery Welles, is another organ of the art indus- try treated in this worlc. This journal came into the possession of Mr. Jeff Davis Bill and E. Lyman Bill in 1887, and has since then been edited and perpetuated under that management. It commands a good circula- tion, influenced considerably by the personal popularity of Messrs. Bill & Bill. The Musical Courier, another leading weekly, is a well- known jonrnal of the music trades. It began in 1880 as the Dramatic and Musical Courier, and was edited by Mr. Nickerson up to 1885, when the present editors, Mr. Otto Floersheim and Mr. Marc A. Blumenberg, assumed control. Mr. Floersheim is a native of Germany, an ex- cellent pianist, and a composer of considerable note in the higher forms of musical art. He has lived many years in this country, and has high literary qualifications and artistic discernment. Mr. Blumenberg is a native of Baltimore, Md. He is practically experienced in the piano business, is a good musician, and a clever writer, and his family have been largely associated with musical art in Baltimore and elsewhere. Chicago, the metropolis of the West, bids fair to be- come a future rival of New York as an art, musical, and literary centre. Many of the New York manufacturers maintain large branch stores, and several piano factories have appeared there within recent years. As the chief city of a vast territory, peopled by a progressive and in- tellectual community, it is no surprise that two musical journals are known even now in Chicago. The Indica- /e^ c/o^'ce— e^ MUSICAL AND TRADE JOURNALISM. 361 tor, a standard weekly well known to most readers as an organ of the music trades, is the pioneer publication of that city. It is published and edited by Mr. Orrin L. Fox. The Indicator first appeared in 1880 in a modest form, but was so successful that it was enlarged to its present size shortly after publication. It has an able trade de- partment, and although published some distance apart from the present home of piano manufacturing, all items of general import appear in its columns, while it reflects Western musical life and movement in a peculiarly able manner. Mr. O. L. Fox is an experienced and clever writer. His connection with musical journalism and the trade is emphasized by the fact that his esteemed wife, Mrs. O. L. Fox, is an eminent figure in the Chicago musical world, and is a member of the faculty of the Chicago College of Music. The Philadelphia Musical Journal and several other journals also chronicle musical events and piano manu- facturing matters incidentally. All of these journals mentioned are maintained through the support of the music trades principally, and are large factors in promoting the growth of musical and art cul- ture in the United States. The music trades, in return for their support, receive substantial and incontrovertible benefits, too well known to need recital. The musical editor is a necessity of our civilization, and occupies a dignified position in relation to progress in the sphere of human development indicated, and is as much entitled to distinction as his brother of the daily newspaper press. This is given in a broad and general sense. 362 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Thus we have seen in the phases of modern piano trade history dealing with the "materials," special business enterprises, and press, that it maintains, as shown, the growth and immense proportions of an art industry that contributes more to human happiness, to the elevation of mankind and the promotion of good-will on earth, than any other factor in our modern civilization. To conclude this work without acknowledgment of the services rendered musical culture and the American pianoforte by the pianists, teachers, and other exponents of the pianoforte as a musical instrument that have ap- peared in the United States during the past century of national independence, would be but to show ignorance of all that pertains to the higher and truer meaning of the instrument as an expression of the divine art which it represents. Going back to the early chapters of this work, the names of Hulett, Von Hagen, and Gilfert stand out in this relationship as teachers and pianists. Since these remote days, those who figured most prom- inently as pianists and teachers of the instrument are given in an addendum list, which includes teachers as well as virtuosi dead and living, native born and foreign. To attempt a classification or a critical biographical estimate of this vast array of talent would be utterly impossible. More I cannot do than pay this humble tribute to their significant connection with the promo- tion of musical art in this country. APPENDIX A. PROMINENT PIANISTS AND TEACHERS WHO ARE OR HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED WITH THE AMERICAN PIANOFORTE. Henri Herz. Sigismund Thalberg. Leopold de Meyer. Louis MoreauGottschalk. Henry C, Timm. Richard Hoffman. Otto Singer. Harry Sanderson. B. J. Lang. James M. Wehli. Henry G. Tucker. Alfred H. Pease Joseph Poznanskl. J. N. Pattison. Wiliiam K. Bassford. Charles Wels. S. B. Mills. Charles Fradel. William Mason. Robert Goldbeck. William H. Sherwood. Alexander Lambert. Carlyle Petersitea. David M. Levett. Arthur Foote. Mr. & Mrs. Edward HoflFman. Louts Maas. Otis B. Boise. B. Bockelmann.^ Anton Rubinstein. Hans Von Bulow. Rafael Joseffy. Carl Faelien. Constantin Sternberg. Emanuel Moor, Edmund Neupert. Sloritz Rosenthal. George Maerath. Ferdinand Von Inten. Emil Liebling. Louis Staab. Arnim Doerner. Henry G. Andreas. Frederick Grant Gleason. Charles H. Jarvis. Frank L. Curtis. George F. Bristow. George W. Morgan. Pierre Douillet. Ferdinand Q. Dulcken. George W. Sumner, Herman Carri. George Doelker. George W. Chadwick. H. C MacDougal. Joseph Co me lias, S. N. Penfield. William R. Case. George W. Colby. Joseph H. Gittings. Edgar S. Kelley. Cecelia S. P. Gary. Alida Topp. Marie Krebs. Anna Mehlig. Teresa Carenno. Clara E. Thorns. Annette Essipoff. - Amy Fay. Madeleine Schiller. Julie Rive King. Cecelia Gaul. Mrs. Steininger Clark. Josephine Ware. Fanny Bloomfield. Helen Hopekirk. Neaily Stevens. Mrs. Sherwood. Eugenie de Roode-Rice. Mary O'Brion. Doustc Sisters. Ida Mollenhauier. A dele Margulies. Alma Faunce Smith. Adele Aus der Ohe. Elizabeth Marsh. Lydia Kunz Venth. Emma Hahr. Mr. & Mrs, William H. N-eave. Frederick Boscowitz. Kunkel Brothers. Epstein Brothers. William G. Vogt. Henry G. Thunder. Robert Thallon. Frederick H. Hahi". E. S. Matoon. S. N. Penfield. Johannes Ziegler. Alfredo Barilli. F. Zech. Asger Hamerik, James M. Tracy. John Orth. Otto Bendix. W. S. B. Matthews. H. O. C. Kortheuer. Mauritz Leefson. Carl H. Lachmund. Walter Petzet. Walter J. Hail. A. R. Parsons, George Schneider. W. M. Semnacher. Bernard Courlaender. Christiania. John S. Van Cleve. Wilson G. Smith. Johannes Wolfram. George W. Hunt. J. C. D. Parker. Dr. F. Ziegfeld. APPENDIX B. LIST OF IMPORTANT PATENTS TAKEN OUT FROM 1796 TO 1890, Including those Destroyed in the Fire of 1836, 1796, May 27.— J. S. McLean, New Jersey, Piano- forte. i3oo, Feb. 12. — J. J. Hawkins, Philadelphia, Pianoforte. " Oct. 24. — J. J. Hawkins, Philadelphia, Musical Instruments. 1807, July 3. — R. Shaw, Boston, Pianoforte. i8i5, Oct. 8.— G. Chartres, New York, Piano- forte. 1817, Oct. 3. — J. Geib, New York, Pianoforte. i8t3, Auel 27.— J. A. Guttwaldt, New York, Pianoforte. iSig, Aug. 21. — R. Bury, Albany, Glass Strings for Piano. i8ao, March , 3. — P. Peltinos, Philadelphia, Chronjometric Tuning Pen. 1822, Nov. 14. — J. Stewart, Boston, Piano- forte. 1824, July 29.— J. Dwight, Boston, Longitudinal Bar in Pianoforte. 1825, Dec. 17. — A. Bab jock, Boston, Skeleton Metal Plate. 1827, May 15. — T. Loud, Philadelphia, Horizon- tal Pianoforte. 1828, March 18.— C. F. L. Albrecht, Philadel- phia, Pianoforte. " Aug. 14. — J. Mackey, Boston, Fitting Hammer Head for Pianoforte. 1830, May 17. — C. S. Sackmeistcr, New York, Pianoforte. " May 20. —C. P. Seabury, New York, Pianoforte. " May 24 —A. Babcock, Philadelphia, Cross- Stringing Pianofortes. 1831, April 22.— E. R. Currier, Boston, Horizon- tal Pianoforte. " May g.— J. F. Nunns, New York, Piano- forte Action. " June 3 — T., H. O., G. T. & H, F. Kear- sing, New York, Pianofortes. " Aug. 6. — Jesse Thompson, New York, Pianoforte Action. i833- Jiily 22- — Louis Fissore, Baltimore, Piano- forte Plate. '* Dec. 31.— A. Babcockj Boston, Construc- tion and Action of Pianoforte. 1835, July 7. — T. Loud, Philadelphia, Com- pensating Tubes for Pianoforte. 1836, Feb. 12.— J. Pethick, Mount Morris, N.Y., Pianoforte. 1836, March 2.— I. Clark, Cincinnati, Piano- forte. *' March 12.— H. Hartye, Baltimore, Piano- forte. 1837, Dec. 7.— T. Loud, Philadelphia, No. 504, Pianoforte Action. 1838, Nov. 20.— E. Brown, Boston, No. 1014, Pianoforte. 1839, June 27 —J. J. Wise, Baltimore, No. 1205, Pianoforte Action, '* Aug. 3.— W. Cumston, Boston, No. 1275, Pianoforte, " Oct. 26.— H. Herrick, New York. No. 1379, Pianoforte. " Oct. 31. — A. Babcock, Boston, No. 1389, Pianoforte. 1840, Oct 8.— J. Chickering, Boston, No. 1802, Pianoforte. 184:, Feb. 10.— T. Gilbert, Boston, No. 1970, Pianoforte Action. *' May 6, -J. Dwight & D. B. New hall. Bos- ton, No. 2o8r, Arranging Keys in Piano- forte. " May_ 19.— F. C. Reichenbach, Philadel- phia, No. 2099, Horizontal Pianoforie. " July 10,— L. Gilbert, B.ston, No. 2167, Pianoforte. " Nov. 3 — D. B. Newhall, Boston, No. 2330, Pianoforte. 1842, April T.— T. Loud, Philadelp^iia, No. 2523, Shifting Movement for Squire and Up- right Piano";. " April 29.— C. Bo?ert & J. Schomacker, Philadelphia, No. 2595, Pianofoite. 1843, Jan. 27. — E. Brown, Boston, No. 2934, Pianoforte. " Sept. i.—J. Chickering, B slon, No. 323S, Pianoforte. 1844, Mirch 26.— O. Gori and P. Ernst, New York, No. 3504, Pianoforte. " April 17.— O. M. Coleman, Philadelphia, No.. 3548, Pianofc rte. *' June 24.— L. Reuckert, Baltimore, No. 3643, Pianoforte. 1845, March 12.— L. Reuckert, Baltimore, No. 3940, Pianoforte. " June 25. — S. W. Draper, Boston, No. 40S2, Pianoforte. " Oct, 25.— E. Badlam, Potsdam, N. Y., No. 4241, Pianoforte. APPENDIX. 365 i8|6, July 2.— L. rhilleo, Utica, N. Y., "No. 1859, 4612, Pianoforte. *' Oct. 29 -J.. Schriber, New York, No. " 4832. Pianoforte. 3847, April 24.— T. Loudf Philadelphia, No. " 5086, Pianoforte Action. '* July 24. — 1" Gilbert, Boston, No. 5202, '* Metallic Frame for Piano. " Aug. 7.— T. Gilbert, Boston, No. 5216, " Pianoforte. 1848, June 13.— J. H. Schomacker, Philadelphia, '^ No. 5631, Pianoforte.- '' Dec. 26. — J, J. Wise, Baltimore, No. 5990, " Pianoforte Action. 1849, March 27.— J. A. Gray, Albany, No. 6223, " Pianoforte. " April 10.— C. Meyer, Philadelphia, No. i860, 6z8z, Elev.tting the Tops of Pianos. 1850, June 18. — L. Gilbert, Boston, No. 7441, " Upright Pianoforte. " July 9- — C. Meyer, Philadelphia, No. " 7494, Sounding Board. '^ Aug. 13.— J. PirsFon, New Yoik, No. " 7568, Pianoforte. 1351, July I.— M. Miller, Rochester, N. Y., No. " 8104, Pianoforte. *' Aug, 26. — G. Bacon & R. Raven, No. '* 8320, Square Piano. " Sept. q. — R. Kreier, New York, No. 8350 1861, Pianoforte Action. '* Sept. 9.— J. A. Gray, Albany, N. Y., No. " 8352, Pianoforte Action. " S pt. 23. — L. H. Browne, Boston, No. " 838^, Pianoforte. " Sept. 30.— T. Gilbert, Boston, No. 8389, " Pianoforte. " Oct. 24. — H. J. Newton, New Yoik, No. 1862, 8452, Pi-tnoforte String. " Oct. 28.— F. Mathushek, New York, No. " 8470, Pianoforte. 1852, April 2o — W. F. Furgang, Alb;iny, No. " 8887, Piano and Organ Key. '* June 27. —G. Brown, Boston, No. 8680, ** Piinoforte Action. '' Oct. 5.— J. J. McDonald, New York, No, " 9304, Pianoforte. 1853, June 4. — 'El. Kreter, New York, No. 9^26, " Covering Piano Hammers. 1854, Jan. 21.— S. B. Driggs, Detroit, Mich., No. 1863, 10,446, Pianoforte Attachment. 1855, Feb. 6. — ^J. A. Gray, Albany, No. 12,362, •■' Pianoforte Sounding l^oard. '* Dec. 18.— S. B. Driegs, Detroit, Mich., No. 1865, 13.942, Metallic Framing a d Sounding Board. " 1857, March 17. — J. A. Gray, Albany, No. 16,- 832, Piano Action. " *' May s.— H. Steinway, New York, No. 17,238, Piano Action. " May ig — S. B. Dripgs,_ New York, No. 17,320, Pianoforte Action. " July 21.— G. H. Hulsk.imp, Troy, N. Y., No. 17,838, Metallic^Bridpe. 1838, June 8, — J. V. Marshall, Albany, No. 20,- 500, Pianoforte Action. " June 15. —H. Steinway. Ntw York, No. 20,595, Pianoforte Action. May 24. — N. J. Haines, New York, No. 24 119, Pianoforte Aciion. July 26. — }. W. Fischer, New York, No. 24 905, Pianoforte. Aug. 30. — F. Marshall, New York, No. 25.305, Pianpforte Action. Sept. 13.— D. Decker, New York, No. 25-3931 Pianoforte Action. Sept. 13.— F C. Lighte, New York, No. 25 426, Pianoforte. Nov. 2q. — H. Steinway, Jr., New York, No. 26,300, Pianoforte. Dec. 20.— F. Mathushek. New York, No. 26,550, Pianoforte Action. Dec. 20. — H, Steinway, New York, No. 26.532, Grand Piano. Feb. 21.— F. C. Lighte, New York, No. 27,226, Grand Pianoforte. Mayz. — J. A. Gray, Albany, No. 28,137, Pianoforte. May 22.— G. H. Hulskamp, Troy, N. Y., No. 28.374, Pianoforte Action. July 10. — J. W. Fischer, New York, No. 29,068, Pianoforte. Aug. 7. — H. Lindeman, New York, No. 29,502, Pianoforte. Oct. 2.— F. Mathushek, New York, No. 30,279, Pianoforte, April 23. — C. F. Chickerin'g} New York, No. ^2,119, Square Pianoforte. May2r.' — H. Steinway, Jr., New York, No. 32.386, Pianoforte Action. May 21. — H. Steinway, Jr., New York, No. 32.387, Pianoforte Aciion. Oct. 8.— H. S. Calenber^, New York, No. 32,427, Pianoforte Action. Jan. 7. — T. Marschall, New York, No. 34,- 114, Pianoforte. ^ Feb. 25.— A. H. Hastings, New York, No, 34 491, Pianofoi te. April 8,— H. Steinway, Jr., New York, No. 34,gio, Pianoforte. June 24. — S. T. Paimelee, New Haven, No. 35,704, Pianoforte. July I.— F. C. Lighte, New York, No. 35,- 766, Pianoforte. Oct. 21.— G. H. Hulskamp, Troy, N. Y., No. 36,712, Piano Action. Feb. 17. — W. Bourne, Boston, No. 37,717, Pianoforte. June 2. — D. Decker, New York, No. 38,- 73T, Pianoforte. , Jan. 10. — D. Decker, New York, No. 45,- 818, Pianoforte. March 7.— S. T. Parmelee, New Haven, No. 46,759, Pianoforte. Aug. I.— T, Loud, Philadelphia, No. 49,127, Swell for Musical Instru- ments. , Feb. ao.— A. LudolfT, New York, No. 52,- 725, Iron Frame for Pianoforte. June 5. — W. Steinway, New York, No, 55,385, Pianoforte. Aug. 14. — R. Raven, New York, No. 57,- 186, Pianoforte. Oct. 16.— W. H. Mason, Boston, No. 58,- 950, Pianoforte. 3^^ APPENDIX, 1866, Oct. 16,— P. Schuler, Philadelphia, No. 1874 58,896, Pianoforte. '* Oct. 30.— W. V. Wallace, New York, No. 59,295, Pianoforte Action. 1867, Jan. 29.~J. J. & D. Decker, New York, " No. 6i,6i2, Pianoforte. " Feb. 19.— H. Herrick, New York, No. 62,134, Pianoforte Action. " April 2.— >y. H. McDonald, Brooklyn, No. 1875, 63,547, Pianoforte. " April 13 — T. Manchall,^ New York, No. " 88,970, Pianoforte. 1868, May z6.— G. M. Guild, Boston, No. 78,276, Sounding Board. *' " July 21.- H. Herrick, Boston, No. 80,073, Pianoforte. '''■ Aug. 18. — T. Steinway, New York, No. " 81,306, Pianoforte. 1869, March 2.— D. T. Peck, New York, No. 87,- " 509, Pianoforte. " April 6.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 88,749, Piano Sounding Board. ** " Aug. 10. — T. Steinway, New York, No. 93,647, Piano Action, " " Dec. 14.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 97,982, Pianoforte. *' 1870, March i. — G. H. Davis, Boston, No. ico,- z66, Grand Pianoforte. '' " March 15.— G. Steck. New York, No. 100,- 948, Iron Frame for Pianofortes. '* "■ March 15. — A. H. Hastings, New York, No. 100.888. " " June 14. — W. Bourne, Boston, No. 104,256, Pianoforte. 1876, " July S- — D. Decker, New York, No. 105,- 049, Former for Bending and Gluing '* Cases of Grand Pianos. 1871, March 38.— F. Malhushek, New York, No. " 113,073, Pianoforte. '' June 6,— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, " No. 115,782, Pianoforte Action. " June 20 — G. Steck, New York, No. 116,- " 109, Grand Pianoforte. " July as-— J- K. Dunham, East Chester, 1877, N- Y., No. ii7,393i Sound Board for Pianos. '* *' Oct. 10.— A. H. Hastings, New York, No. 119,760, Pianoforte. " " Nov. a8.— C. F. Chickering, New York, No. 121,334, Upright PianDS. " 1872, May 14.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 126,848, Duplex Agraffe Scale for " Pianos. " May 28,~C. F. T. Steinway, New York, 1878, No. .127,383. " May 28.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, '* No. 127,384. " Dec. 24.— C. F. Chickering, New York, " No. 134,194, Piano Agraffe. 1873, Feb. II.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, " No. 135,857, Piano Sounding Board. " March. 18.— R. Kreter, New York, No. '* 137,005, Upright Piano Action. " Oct. 21.— G. Steck. New York, No. 143,789, '* Grand Pianoforte. " Oct. 28.— G. H. Davii!, Boston, No. 143,- " 967, Upright Pianofo:te. , March i7.— A. Dolge & A. Gleit2, New York, No. 148,678, Piano Action. Aug. II.— F. Mathushek & D. H. Dun- ham, New York, No. 154,062, Pianoforte. Aug. 18.— H. Behning & J. Diehl, New York, No. 154,116, Piano Agr; ffe. Oct. 27. — A. Steinway, New York, No. 156,388, Piano Attachment. Feb. 16.— F. Polster, Baltimore, No. 159,- 838, Piano Repetition Action. March z. — H. Behning & J. Diehl, New York, No. 160,299, piano Nameboard, etc. March 9. — W. F. Kearsing, New Yoik, No. ' 160,600, Piano Stringing and Turing De- vice. May 4. — Kranich & Bach, New York, No. 162,829, Piano Agraffe. June 1. — A. Steinway, New York, Nos. 164,052, 164,053, 164,054, Piano Attach* ment. Nov. 16.— E. Gabler, New York, No. 169,- 984, Upright Piano. Nov. 16. — E, Gabler, New York, No. 169,- 985, Piano Agraffe. Nov. 30. — S- Brambach, New York, No. 170,619, Upright Music K. ck. Nov. 30.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 170,645, Grand Piano Action. Nov. 30. — C. F. T. Steinway. New York, No. 170,646, Pianoforte Agraffe. Nov. 30.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 170,647, Pianoforte Metal Frame. Feb. 15. — W. M. Cammon, Albany, No. 173,565, Pianoforte. March 28.— C. F. Chickering-, New York. No. 175,336, Grand Piano Frame. June 13 — C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 178,565, Pianoforte. Aug. 1.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 180,671, Piano Sounding Board. Oct. 17.— .VI. C. Knabe, Philadelphia, No. 183,308, Piano Action. March 20 — Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New York, No. 188,706, Piano Action. May 8. — A. Steinway, New York, No. 190,639, Piano Attachment. May 29.— Kranich 8l Bach, New York, No. 191,444, Pianoforte. Nov. 6. — Kranich & Bach, New York, No. 196,912, Piano Action Frame. Nov. zo. — C. F. Chickering, New York, No. ^97t33'i Pianoforte. Jan. 15.— A. H. Hastings, Mew York, No. 199,154, Piano Action. Jan. 29.— E. Gabler, New York, No. 199,- 635, Pianoforte. Jan, 29. — J. Brinsmead, London, Eng., No. 199,687, Pianoforte Action, Feb. 26. — G. W. Lyon, Chicago, No. 200,- 741, Piano Sounding Board. April 2.— H. W. Gray, Philadelphia, No. 202,020, Piano String, ' May 7.— G. Boihner, New York, No. 203,- .5407, Piano Action. May 21.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 204,106, Grand Piano. APPENDIX, 367 1878, May 21.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 204,107, Piano Action. May 21.— O. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 304,108, Pianoforte. May 21.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 204,109, Piano Agraffe. May 21.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, Nn. 204,1x0, Piano Sounding Board. July 2.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 205,696, Piano Repeating Action. Nov. 26. — Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New York, No. 210,381, Piano Damper Ac- tion. 1879, Jan. 7. — G, Steck, New York, No. 211. 115, Piano Damper Attachment. " Feb. 4.— F. & H. Mathushek, Jr., New York, No. 213,029, Pianoforte- " July 22 — C. F. T. Steinway, New Yo k. No. 217,828, JDevice for Levelling Key- frames of Pianofortes. " Sept. 2.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 219.323,' Device for Adjusting Piano Action Frames. 1880, Feb. 3.— C. S. Fischer, New York, No. 2-4,- 008, Piano Action Frame. " April 13 — C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 226,462, Piano Action and Action- frame. " April zo.— H. Praeger, Baltimore, No. 226,- 676, Music Desk for Piano. " May 18.— G- M- Gould, Boston, No. 227,- 624, Upright Piano Action. " June 15. — Carl Mahling, New York, No- 228,913, Piano Damper Attachment. " July 13. — J* Hardman, New York, No. 229,820, Pianoforte. " July 20.— C. F. T. Steinway, Ne* York, No. 230,354, Upright Piano, " Aug. 24.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, NoS' 231,629, 231,630, Piano Hammer. '' Oct. 5,— C- F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 232.857, Key Frame Bed for Pia-'o. " 'Oct. 12.— Kranich & Bach, New York, No. 233,103, Piano Action. " Oct. 26.— C. F. T. Steinway. New York, No> 233,710, Piano Square Board Brid|;e. " Dec- 14*— J- Hardman, New York, No. 235,357, Piano Action. 1881, March i.— M. J. Chase, Richmond, Ind-, No' 238,214, Piano Action. " March 13 — A. F. Hellig, Little Ferry, N. J., No- 238,898, Stringing Pianoforte. " April 19.— J. F- Conover & W- Brown, New York, No. 240,934, Pianoforte* " June 7:— G. M. Woodward, Brookline, Mass., No. 242,732, Piano Damper Ac- tion* " J"^y 5«— M. J. Chase, Richmond, Ind-, No* 243,689, Sounding Board* " July 5- — G* M, Guild, Boston, No* 243,700, Upright Piano Case: " July ig*— W- A' Lorenz, Brooklyn, No. 244,63s, Upright Piano Case* " Aug. 16. — Louis Stremmell, Lynchbtirg, Va., No. 245,672, Pianoforte. " Sept. 13 C. G. Buttkereit, Des Moines, la., No* 247,009, Bell Piano. 1883. 1884, Sept. 27 — C. E. & W, Bourne, Boston, No. 347,474, Upright Piano Case. Oct. 4.— C. F. Chickering, New York, No. 247,887, Pianoforte. Dec 14. — J. Hardman, Ntw Vork, No. 235,357, Piano Action Frame. Jan. 17. — P. G. Mehlin, New Voik, No. 252,37', Piano Action Frame. Feb. 28.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 254,209, Wrest Block Hridge. May 23. — E. M. Gammon, Albany, No. 258,455, Pianoforte. May 30. — ^J. Hardman, New York, No. 258,751, Repetition Action for Pianos, July 25. — H. Behning, New York, No. 261,523, Sounding Bsard for Upright Piano. Aug. I. — J. Jacobsen, New York, No. 262,047, Upright Piano. Dec. 5. — H, Sohmer, New York, No. 268,562, Piano Agraffd Bar. Dec. ig. — A. Gemundes, Columbus, O., No, 269,40^, Piano Action. Jan. 23.— C, F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 270,914, Piano Action. July 3.— J. Diehl, New York, No. 280,362, Piano Sounding Board. Oct. 2.— F. L. Becker, New York, No. 285.785, Pivot Joint for Piano Action. Oct. g.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 286,425, Upright Piano Case. March 18. — Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New York, No. 295,317, Piano Damper. March 18.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 29s 383, Piano or Organ Key Rail. March 25.— J. R. Loma^, New Haven, No. 295,778, Stringing Device for Pianos. Aprils.— G.W. Peck, New York, No. 296,612, Lid Raising Attauhment for Pianos. April 29, — F. L. Becker, New York, No. 297,908, Repetition Action for Piano. May 6. — J. Swenson, New York, No. 298,040, Device for Cutting Damper Felt for Pianos. May 27. — H. Kroeger, New York, No, 299,479, Pianoforte Fr me. June 24. — H. S. Parmelee, New Haven, Conn., No. 301,068, Piano Sounding Bo rd. Jan. 27. — P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 311,243, Pianoforte. Feb. 3.— E B. Haynes, Baltimore, No. 311,754, Piano Pedal Attachment. Feb. 24.— Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New York, No 3x2,776, Piano Damper. March 17. — F. Polster, Baltimore, No. 314,195, Upright Action. March 24. — A. Baus, New York, No. 314,- 310, Piano Agraffe. March 31 — C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 31^,740, Piano Frame, March 31.— C. F. T. Steinway, New York, No. 314,741, Piano Pedal. March 31.— C. F. T. Steitiway, New York, No. 314,742, Piano Frame. 368 APPENDIX, 1885, April 21. — W, C. Ellis, Worcester, Mass., No. 316,023, Piano Action. " April 28.— G. Cook, Bo.ston, No. 316,445, Pianoforte. '' May 12 — P. Menges, New York, No. 317,- 660, Pianoforte Action. " Jine 2. — J. Brinsmead, London, Eng.,No. 319,189, Piano Sounding Board. " July 14. — S. Brambach, New York, No. 322,0^9, Upright Piano Action. *' Aug. 4.— C W. Brewer, Racine, Wis., No. .^23 632. Piano Action. ' Aug 4 — F. G. Smith, Brooklyn, No, 323,- 747, Upright Piano. " Aug. 18. — E. Gabler, New York, No. 324,- 467, Pianoforte. " Sept. r.— F. Engelhardt, New York, No. 325 401, Piano Action. " Sept, 8. — I Fuso, Boston, No. 325,669, Up'ight Action. Sept. 8. — G. J. Couchois, Chicago, No. 326,020, Piano Agraffe. " Sept 15. — C. E. Rogers, Boston, No. 326,- 335, Pianoforte Action. " Sept. 22.— F. Polster, Baltimore. No. 326,- 586, Repeating Action for Square and Grand Pianos, ' Oct, 27.— J. F. Conovcr, New York, No. 329,277, Piano Stringing. " Nov. 10. — F, Zech, San Francisco, No. 330,080, Piano Action. *' Dec, 22, — F. Imhorst, San Francisco, No. ^32,716, Piano Action. 1886, Jan. 26.— S, Bramhach, New York, No. 334t933i Upright Piano Ca.se. " March 9. — V. Eessier, New York, No. 337,- 5<;2, Pianissimo Stops for Piano. " March3->.— J. W, Reed, Chicago, No. 338,779, Piano String Bridge. " March 30. — W, & C. E. Bourne, Beaton, No. 338,918, Upright Piano Action Frame, ** April 6.— J. Hardman & W. H. Dutton, No. 339,170, Harp Stop for Upright Piano. " April 20. — S. La Grassa, New York, No. 34 ,2'g, Key Bottom for Pianos. " M-*y 4. — S. Hansing, Boston, No. 341,003, Stringmg Pianos. " June 15.— A Fell'din, Ithaca, N. Y,, No. 343,805, Piano Tuning Pin, " June 29.— C. D. Pease, New York, No. 344,677, Action Rail for Piano. *' July 20 -R. E. Letton, Quincy, III., No. 345,706, Upright Piano Action. *' Aug. 24. — J, W. Hooper, Boston, No. 348,111, Pianoforte Action. *' Oct. B. — C. F. Chickering, New York, No. 350,292, Pianoforte. " Oct. 12. — F. L. Wing, Brooklyn, No. 350,- 517, Piano Key-Bed Support. " Oct. ig.— H. Kroeger, New York, T^o. 351,326, Capo d'a-tro Bar for Pianos. " Oct. 26. — J. Gramer, Boston, No. 351,696, Metallic Frame for Pianos. '^ Nov. 9. — J. F. Conover, New York, No, 352,300, Music Rack for Pianos. 1886, Nov. g.-J. W. Carnes, Oiion. UK, No. 352.395, Tuning Pin. '* Nov. 3J — P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 353i30'» Mule Bar Damper for Pianos. *' Dec, 14. — S. La Grassa, New York, No. 354,323, Upright Piano. 1887, Jan. 18.— W. C. Ellis, Worcester, Mass., 1^0. 356,109, Pianoforte Action. " Feb. I.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 356,759, Key Frame for Piano. " Feb. 8.— J. E. Richardson & J. A. Warren, Detroit, Mich., No. 357,291, Upright Piano. *' Feb. 8.— P, Weber, New York, No. 357,- 436, Pianissimo Pedal for Piano. " March 8.-^. Sohmer, New York, No. 358.946, Pianoforte. ■*' March 28, — H. B. Niekerson, New Bed- ford, Mass., No. 359,808, Stringing Pianos. '* April 12, — A. Dolge, New York, No, 361,- 144, Press for Forming Piano Ham- mers. " April 19.— C. S. Weber, Cleveland, O., No, 361,384, Stringing Pianos. " April 26. — S. Newhouse, Chicago, No. 361,967, Piano Sound Board, *' May 24,— E. Stroud, New York, No. 363,- 488, Piano Action Frame. '* May 31.— S, Brambach, New York, No. 363.947, Upright Piano Action, " June 7.— D. E. Dopp, Santa Rosa, Cal., No. 364,399, Piano Action. " June 7. — A. Dolge, New York, No. 364,- 496, Piano Hammers. *' June 7. — J. R. Perry, Wilkesbarre, Pa., No. 364,601, Piano Damper. '* June 28. — George Steck, New York, No, 365 412, Pianoforte. " June 28. — A. J. Gillespie, Atlantic, la., No- 36S)593> Stringing Pianos. " July 12. — Wessell, Nickel & Gross, New York, No. 366 360, Piano Action. " July 12. — WT Becker, Chicago, No. 366,- 615, Guide Pin for Piano Keys. " July 19. — C. Lutz, New York, No. 366,782, Piano Tuning Pin. '* July 26 — J. W. Cooper, Boston, No. 367,- 272, Pianissimo Device for Piano. " Aug. 16.- G. F. Dieckman, New York, No. 368,19s, Electrical Piano. " Aug. 23. — P. J-. Keller, Bridgeport, Conn., No. 368,673, Bridge for Piano. " Oct. 4.— W. H. Ivers, Dedham, Mass., No. 371,069, Pianoforte. '' Oct. 18.— V. H. ESrown, Portland, Ore., No. 37T ^^6^ Piano Action. " Oct. 25.— C, H. Mahling, New York, No. 372,035, Piano Frame. " Nov. 15. — F. M. Antisell, San Francisco, No. 373,262, Piano Wrest Plank. "■ Dec. 20.— F. E. H, Gardiner, Springfield, Mo., No. 375 150, Piano Tuning Pin. " Dec. 20. — E. Q. Norton, Mobile, Ala., No. 375,327, Upright Piano Action. 1888, April 17.— S. R. Harcourt, Chicago, No. 381,1:9, Piano Action. APPENDIX. 369 1888, May 8.— W. H. Ivers, Boston, No. 382,471, Piano Key Bottom. *' June la.— W. H. Button, Philadelphia, Nos. 384,241, 384,243, 384.843. 384.244. Upright Piano. " June 19.— P. Krumscheid, Boston, No. 384,917, Upright Piano Action. " July 3.— F. G. Smith, Brooklyn, No. 385,- 380, Pianoforte. " July 10. — J. McDonald, Brooklyn, No. 386,079, Piano Action. ' Aug. 7. — F. Feilvng, Milwaukee, Wis., No. 387.503. Pianissimo Pedal for Piano- fories. *' Sept. 25. — W. H. Ivers, boston, No. 389,- g66, Pianoforte Bridge. " Sept. 25.— C. C. Hudson, Elmira, N. Y., No. 390,169, Upright Piano Case. " Oct. i6.— H. R. Moore, Norwalk, O., No. 391,181, Piano Pedal Attachment. " Oct. 23.— W. Umland, New York, No. 391,495, Damper for Upright Pianos. " Nov. 6. — W. H. Ivers, Boston, No. 392,- 270, Damper for Piano. " Nov, 13. — O. Lestina, Derby, Conn., No. 392,737, Piano Pedal. " Nov, 20.— E. Q. Norton, Mobile, Ala., No. 393,024, Device for Beating Out Pianos. 1S89, Jan. 15.— F. W. Hale Boston, No. 396,15s, Pianoforte. " Jan. 29.— G. M. Guild, Boston, No. 396,- 740 Stringing and Tuning for Pianos. " Feb. 5.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 397,121, Piano Case. " Feb. 5.— Kranich & Bach, New York, No. 397,239, Piano Action. 1889, Feb. ig.— S. Hansing, New York, No. 398,- ijo, MufHer for Upright Piano; No. 398,151, Upright Piano Action. Feb. 26.— H. Mallebre, New York, No. 398*635. Upright Piano Action Frame. March 19 G. Steck, New Yoik, No. 399,- 710, Pianoforte. May 21.— P. G. Mehlin, New York, No. 403 583, Piano Plate. June 4. — S. Hansing, New Yoik, No. 404,- 704, Piano Action. June II. — A. T. Strauch, New York, No. 404.876, Repeating Action for Grands. June 18.— C. R. Elias, Chicago, No. 405,- 465, Touch Regulator for Pianos. July 2.— S. R. Perry, Wilkesbarre, Pa., No, 406,405, Piano Action. July 16.— C. M. Richards, Fort Scott, Kan., No. 407,035, Shifting Piano Ac- tion. Aug. 13. — A. Richter, New York, No. 408,852, Piano Action. Aug. 20. — H. L. Howe, Lexington, Ky., No. 409,325. Aug. 27. — J. Swenson, New York, No. 409,810, Device for Cutting Damper Felts for Pianos. Sept. 3.— W. Umland, New York, No. . 410,223, Divisible Upright Piano. Sept. 17. — Kranich & B.*ch, New York,. No. 411,248, Piano Action, Oct. I.— E. G. Schleicher, Mount Vernon, N. Y., No. 411 934. Nov. 5, — C. Brambdch, New York, No. 414,923, Key Bottom for Pianofortes. HAZELTON BROTHERS f ESTABLISHED 1 850. Manufacturers of ^ AZELTON BROTHERS determined from the beginning that in every case they would exert themselves to the utmost to give entire satisfac~ tion to each and every customer, and to depend upon this to bring their name into favor with the public, and gain an endorsement and recommendation from each customer and family who used their Pianos instead of adopting the patent medicine style of advertising, with its paid-for pufiFs and spurious endorsements, upon which the sale of so many worthless Pianos entirely depends. tiiliniitiiiiiiitiiiiiiiinniiiiiiiiii W^A%E1{00?MS: 34 AND 36 UNIVERSITY PLACE, New York. Craig y Nos Castle, YSTRADGYNLAIS SWANSEA VALLEV, South Wales. Messrs. Haines Brothers ; The Upright Piano-Forte has arrived in perfect condition at the Castle, and I must say I never heard one with such lovely tones. Assuring you of my delight with my Piano, and with sentiments of distinguised regard, believe me, Your sincere friend, ADELINA PATTI. ADELINA PATTI, CHRISTINE NILSSON, ETELKA GERSTER, SOFIA SCALCHI, HOPE GLENN, MARIE MARIMON, EMMA THVRSBY, EMILIE AMBRE, ITALO CAMPANINI, LUIGI RAVELLI, ALFRED H. PEASE, OLE BULL, dLARA LOUISE KELLOGG, ALWINA VALLERIA, MARIE ROZE,. EMMA ABBOTT, ZELDA SEGUIN, ■ ■ MME LA BLACHE, FANNY KELLOGG, SIGNOR BRIGNOLI, MAURICE STRAKOSCH, ANTONIO F GALASSI, GIUSEPPE DEL PUENTE, HAVE USED AND ENDORSED THE HAINKS BROTHERS' AS BEING A bsolutely the best U pright piano-'Forte; IN THE WORLD. WORKS, OFFICE AND BUSINESS. ADDRESS AT m% ^outsheM Boiilevaiitl, i^Iei^ailflei'lVB. and 132d^i, E Y. TELBPHONE NUMBER, 281 HARLEM. PAUL G. MEHLIN & SONS, Manufacturers of 5^^ Ibigb (Srabe =^- Piano -Fortes. Absolutely the Highest Degree of Perfection yet attained in Upright Pianos, Containing more V a 1 u a b i e Pat- ented Improve- ments than those of any other malte, viz. ; Patent Grand Plate and Scale. Patent Touch Regulator. Patent Grand Fall Board. Patent Harmonic Scale. Patent Piano Muffler. Patent Endwood Bridge. Patent Finger Guard. Patent Steel Action Frame. Patent Cylinder Top and Tone Reflector. " The introduction into the Upright of the FULL GRAND PLATE AND SCALE, by Mehlin & Sons, has been pronounced one of the most decided advances in the construction of the Upright Piano, as it makes it practically a perfect GRAND PlANO INVERTED." — American Art Journal^ Nov. 30, 1889. PAUL G. MEHLIN & SONS, Manufactory and Warerooms : Nos. 461, 463, 465, 467 West 40th Street, NEW YORK. ESTABLISHED 1861. BEHNING & SON MANUFACTURERS OF 1:1 Piano - Fortes OFFICE ^NT> FACTORY: i28th street, Between Third and Lexington Avenues, NEW YORK. WAREROOM CONNECTED WITH FACTORY. CONOVER BROTHERS. Manufacturers of Upright a^ (^roJl^^^ PIANO- FORTES, IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII^ CONTArNING THE FOLLOWING PATENTED IMPROVEMENTS : Repeating Action. Metallic Action Rail. Duplex Bridge with Auxiliary Vibrators. Telescope Lamp Bracket. Automatic Music Desk. Hollow Steel Tuning Pin. ENDORSED BY A HOST OF EMINENT PIANISTS AND MUSICIANS. FACTORY' AND WAREROOMS: 400 AND 402 WEST 14TH STREET, Corner Ninth Avenue. NEW YORK. THE OLDEST AND LEADING MUSICAL WEEKLY. Volume 54. Number 2S. Xl^" The AMERICAN ART JOURNAL. >*A WEEKLY CRITICAL REVIEW** pevgied to ]\lUSIG. Jiji7, ATip TPP ]\IusiG Jbapps *3|C SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1890. )|e-e- OFFICES, NO. 23 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK. ^^^ ENTERS UPON ITS 28th YEAR APRIL 19, 1890. THE OLDEST AND LEADING MUSICAL WEEKLY. Voluine 34. Number 28. ^JPS The AMERICAN ART JOURNAL. MCA WEEKLY CRITICAL REVIEW** pevgied to ]\IUSIG, ^BT. Alip TKP ]\IUSIG JMPFS *^ SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1890. ** .« OFFICES, NO. 23 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK. ENTERS UPON ITS 28th YEAR APRIL 19, 1890.