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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
July 5th, 1881.
THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
August 5th next will be recollected as the fiftieth anniversary of the game of bluff, every succeeding issue of the aforesaid advertisements show-
death of the great Sebastian Erard, the inventor of the "repetition action," ing a large decline in price.
Such a state of things can only have one end, namely, the reaching of a
which has been improved upon by so many manufacturers, and which forms
the groundwork of most of the numerous English, American, and German point where the goods cannot be sold at a profit. As soon as this point is
actions of the present day. Exactly sixty years ago the "perfected" (as it reached, and the sooner the better for all legitimate manufacturers, and the
was then thought) repetition action was patented, by his nephew, Pierre, public generally, the making of organs will be confined to a comparatively
whose widow is still head of the firm. Since then the action has, small number of manufacturers, who will continue the business under more
with slight modifications, remained practically unchanged in the Erard favorable auspices and on a surer foundation.
pianos, although it has been much improved by others. The remarkable
The organ manufacturers may be divided into two classes. The first which
fact is by these anniversaries brought prominently to notice, that only one has a capital sufficient for all the requirements of the business, has entered
generation intervenes between the present time and the first introduction of it with the intention of making it a permanent occupation, and with that end
the piano to France. Sebastian Erard was born in 1752, his nephew, Pierre, in view has erected costly buildings filled with expensive machinery with
his contemporary partner and successor, died in 1855, and Pierre's widow is the view of turning out the best possible work for the money received, and
still living, and is head of the firm.
by making good instruments and treating its customers fairly, to gradually
establish a reputation which will place the business on a firm footing and be
Next year exhibitions of German workmanship will be held at Berlin in a source of profit to its successors as well as itself.
April and May, at Briinn, at Leipzig, at Niirnberg, from May 15th to October
These are the aims of the legitimate manufacturers, with which may be
15th, and at Zurich. An exhibition will likewise be held at Nice.
contrasted the purposes of the illegitimate class. The methods of the latter
The death of M. Charles Genevee, one of the most popular music pub- are directly opposed to the former, one class investing its capital permanently
lishers of Paris is announced. He founded the publishing house in the Rue with an eye to the future, the other merely taking up the business as it
Quatre-Septembre, and he was a leading member of the Society of French would a stock speculation, as a temporary means of employing its money.
People of the latter class hire buildings, or put up mere barns, fill them
Publishers.
with second hand machinery, turn out the cheapest possible instruments
The Gebriider Wolff are manufacturers at Kreuznach, Rhenish Prussia, made of the commonest materials, put together by inferior workmen at
of violins, violas, violoncellos, contra-basses, zithers, guitars, and mando- starvation prices, blatantly advertise the instruments so constructed, hesi-
lines. Their manufactui'j was established in 1860, and for the first ten tate at no untruth calculated to increase their sales, trade upon a notoriety
years their business was almost entirely limited to the German market, but obtained by representing other manufacturers as monopolists and swindlers,
since 1870 they have exported. Their violins, violas, and violoncellos are who with the assistance of their agents are obtaining exorbitant prices for
made after models of the celebrated Italian masters Stradivarius and Guan- their goods, continue this course as long as the smallest margin oi profit can
arius, some of them being as low as four shillings. One of their latest in- be obtained without the slightest intention of achieving a reputation as
ventions is the " dumb violin" for learners, which has the recommendation manufacturers who depend upon the future as well as the present, and,
of enabling them to perceive exactly every nuance of sound without disturb- when the bottom falls out they sell off their buildings and machinery and
ing even the inhabitants of the house where it is played.
retire from the business to practice the same tactics in other growing
Among the German musical instrument manufacturers of all sorts trades.
exhibiting at the Halle Industrial Exhibition, which opened early this
When this point has been reached, and it is rapidly approaching, the
month, are Baumbach, Bauer, Bornkessel, Bretschneider, Dornheim, legitimate manufacturer will reap the benefits from the new condition of the
Glaiiert, Giinther, Haenel, Hagspiel, Hammig, Heberlein, Henkel, Holling trade; there will be an advance in prices and the instruments made will be
& Spangenberg, Hoffmann, Hupfer, Jehring, Irmler, Kreutzbach, Kruspe, naturally divided into different classes, commanding prices corresponding to
Leipz. Musikwerke, Reichel, Ritter, Romhildt, Rosenkranz, Riibner, the reputation for fair dealing and honest work of the makers, and to the
Riihlmann, Adolf Schmidt, Schmidt & Sohn, Seitz, Sondermann, Stichel, intrinsic value of the instruments.
Suppe, Wagner, Wieck & Haussler, Wiedemann, and Wohlleben.
Every trade which is comparatively new, as is the organ trade, has been
subjected to the same ordeal; viz., a great influx of manufacturers and
Giuseppe Guernandi, an organ builder of Bologna, died recently in that dealers, with a small amount of capital and a still smaller amount of experi-
town, aged 68.
ence, who for a time succeed in persuading the public that one organ is as
good as another. Their numbers rapidly increase, and each bids lower than
TRADE TROUBLES IN ENGLAND.
the other, until in a short time there is no margin of profit left, and these
n p H E following leaflet has been very extensively circulated among the so-called manufacturers then fall out of the business and the dealers are
X journeymen pianoforte makers in every shop in London. As the Lon- obliged to confine their operations to a more legitimate class of goods.
don and Provincial Music Trades Revieio remarks, " it is impossible to avoid The public will soon have their eyes opened to the fact that a vast
deep sympathy with men," who, as the writer says, are either working half quantity of poor instruments has been foisted upon them at exorbitant
time or are out of work altogether. Trade must indeed be dull in England. prices, (when the quality is taken into consideration), of which fact they
have abundant evidence in the prices now advertised as compared with wkat
FKEB TRADE Versus PROTECTION.
they were only a few months, or even weeks ago; for the average buyer,
although he may not be a good judge of the quality of an organ, cannot fail
To the Artisans and Operatives of the English Pianoforte Trade.
to see that the rapid decline in prices of the goods he is asked to purchase
The time is now rapidly approaching when the present commercial does not come from any natural cause, such as a decline in the price of the
treaty between England and France will terminate; the question of free raw material used, or in the labor engaged in the manufacture, but solely
trade is therefore being very prominently brought before men's minds, and from the anxiety to make sales shown by the advertisers, and he will like-
many people are beginning to ask themselves whether this so-called free wise see that if there is any profit now in making the articles at the prices at
trade is such an absolute blessing as its advocates claim for it.
present advertised, the prices heretofore advertised must have been out of
The object of this leaflet is to show in a few words the effect it has had all proportion to the cost of production.
on the English pianoforte trade during the past ten years.
before stated the above condition of things is not confined to the
It is well known that pianos of foreign manufacture can enter this organ As trade,
but is true in regard to any growing business in the manufac-
country duty free, and the Germans, French, and Americans have availed turing
the only difference being, that as far as we know, the illegi-
themselves of the privilege to pour their manufactures in here by thousands, timate interest,
class engaged in organ making is chacterized by a transcendent
with this effect—that pianos are now almost a drug in the market, and the talent for
and an amount of brazen cheek that is unequalled, except
price of good instruments has been so depreciated that in some cases there perhaps, in lying,
the
bogus
jewelry line.
is hardly profit enough to pay for making.
English workmen! have you the opportunity to send your handiwork in-
to other countries on the same terms? Nothing of the kind. The Germans,
French, and Americans burden your manufacture with heavy duties, amount-
ing almost to prohibition, before it is allowed to enter their countries. Is it
any wonder then that half the factories in London are working short time,
and others are discharging their hands? Is it any wonder that you and your
families are suffering in consequence?
And yet a great deal of this is attributable to the working man ; it is the
artisans and mechanics, as a rule, who send such impostors as Bright and
Chamberlain to Parliament—men who climb into the House of Commons on
the backs of the working classes and then kick away the ladder that has help-
ed them. How much longer will the working man allow such false friends
to fool him with their quackery about free trade and the cheap loaf? Of
what avail is it to a man that bread is cheap if he has no work and no money
to buy it with? This is specially adddessed to working men of the piano-
forte trade by one who is in it", but the same arguments apply to half the in-
dustries of Great Britain : sugar refining, cloth weaving, calico and silk spin-
ning, iron founding, glove making, and others by the score could be men-
tioned, which are gradually but surely being swamped by foreign produce ;
and yet your Radical friends in Parliament call men lunatics when they cry
BUZZ PLANE!*.
out to have their industries protected and their homes and families saved
from ruin.
Pianoforte workmen and operatives! how much longer will you tamely
submit to this? Organize, and demand protection from the French,Germans,
SUCH
and Americans.
WOOD-WORKING MACHINERY,
PECULIARITIES OF THE ORGAN TRADE.
r I iHE organ trade has recently developed conditions which are of great
JL interest to every legitimate manufacturer of these instruments, as
tending to show what are the prospects for the future in this industry.
In consequence of the present excessive competition in the organ trade,
the public press is flooded with flaming advertisements, setting forth the
merits of the respective instruments offered; also, (and this is the important
feature), offering great inducements to the purchaser in the matter of price.
This competition is carried to such ridiculous excess that it resembles a
W0ODW0RTH
PLANING, TOUNGING AND GROOVING MACHINES,
ENDLESS BED PLANERS FOR SINGLE OR DOUBLE SURFACING,
DANIELS' PLANERS, BUZZ PLANERS,
RICHARDSON'S PATENT IMPROVED TENON MACHINES,
Mortising, Molding, Jte-saiv and Hand Saw Machines, Picture Frame & Miter Cutting
Machines, Jiox Machinery, J'atent Double Haw Henches and Saw Tables.
MA.NUFACTOKED BY
WITHERBY, RUGG & RICHARDSON, Worcester, Mass.
36 Salisbury Street, shop formerly occupied liy ft. Ball & Co.