Music Trade Review

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THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
TIMELY TALKS ON TIMELY TOPICS
December 5 th, 1881.
year, and is now doing a fine business. Their
CHICAGO TRADE.
HE dealers are preparing for the holiday trade, position is the best in the city for business, and
and many novelties in the way of imported their long acquaintance with the Western trade
goods are on exhibition. In this respect, Chicago gives them a great advantage.
is becoming quite irnjDortant. Large amounts of
SECOND RATE PIANOS.
OVERRUN WITH ORDERS.
direct importations come yearly to this city. I was
There is a growing desire on the part of every
The Mechanical Orguinette Company, of No. 831 able to make a comparison of the increase in this
Broadway, finds itself unusually busy at the pre- line of goods, from a table that had been kept for pianoforte firm to bring before the public instru-
sent time filling the large orders that are constant- a number of years. I found from this observation, ments that bear their own name. They are led to
ly pouring in. I t has only been a week or so ago that the increase had been very large. One import- this by the following reasons: If they sell a well-
that they have been able to supply the customers ant house, that formerly imported only three hun- made piano with their names upon it, it is a con-
that have crowded their Broadway store, and have dred cases, has now reached the large number of tinual advertisement for the house. A leading
been put off from time to time until earlier custom- nine hundred. The approximate wholesale value piano like the Steinway, Chickering, &c., is of
ers could be accommodated. The Company, how- of which was over two hundred and seventy thou- advantage to the dealer as a piano of reputation
that will command trade. But it is a fact that
ever, has at last caught up by making unusual sand dollars.
more of the cheaper class of instruments are sold
exertions and can now meet the demands made
I observed that some smaller houses had also than those of the best make. This class of piano
upon it. This lively rush of trade is partially due
doubled
the
amount
of
their
importations.
is made to serve a double purpose: fill a place in
to a large holiday traffic.
In looking through the wholesale department of the market and yet make a name for the dealer as
Mr. E. E. Jones, secretary of the Company, con-
LYON & HEALY'S
manufacturer, as it bears his name. I have noticed
versed recently with a reporter of THE MUSICAL
CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW about the orguinettes, establishment, I was struck with the large stock a great improvement in this class of instrument
cabinettos, cabinet orguinettes, musical cabinets, that they carry in some departments. They had of late. Many firms will not allow their names
automatic pianos, and pipe and reed organs dis- on hand fifteen thousand dollars' worth of strings upon an instrument unless it is a good wearing
piano, being jealous of their reputations.
for one item alone.
played at the Broadway store.
In music boxes, their stock was very complete,
" We are doing a rushing business now," said
In the future, all large agents will try to run
Mr. Jones. " and have all we can do to supply our embracing many novelties, such as Swiss coverings their own pianos as the second piano, and many
customers. Over there are half a dozen $75 in- in various forms of animal life, flagons, and other are trying by patents of their own to hold the in-
struments that we could ship immediately to quaint designs.
strument as solely their own.
customers waiting for them and so on with most of
This departure will lead to the establishment of
THE HOLIDAY TRADE.
the goods that are kept for purposes of display in
For the past week there has been a little let pianoforte manufactories in the West before long.
this room. We are building a $2,500 pipe organ down of business in the retail departments of the
C. H. BHUTAN.
for a New York gentleman. I t will have a ma- pianoforte trade in some of our large houses, anc 7
hogany case and a full key-board and will be the reason is doubtless this, that many purchasen
BRADBURY & CO.
ready December 1. We make the instruments at are waiting until Christinas when the pianoforte
prices running from $8 to $2,500, which is the may take the place of a holiday present. Yet I
LETTER written us in September by a firm
finest we have yet tnrned out. The eight-dollar would not be understood as saying that there was
in Washington, D. C , has been mislaid so
instrument has four pieces of music which go with inactivity in this line of trade, only that a tem- that we were unable to answer the questions it
it. This number can be increased, of course, at porary change was being felt.
contained until the present time. Our corre-
the option of tiie purchaser. One gentleman who
spondents complain that parties in Washington are
Our
various
wareroorns
are
filled
with
complete
has a fine orguinette purchased 480 pieces of music,
selling the " Bradbury &• Company" piano and
yet the other day he dropped in and wanted to stocks, and every inducement is offered to trade. they wish to know if that is a legitimate name, or,
PIANOFORTE TESTIMONIALS.
know whether we had any new music ready.
as they express it, " whether it is a parasite upon
There is less mechanism in the smaller instru-
In this connection I can but observe the length the parasitical 'Bradbury.'"
ments than in the larger, and consequently they to which many manufacturers have gone to ob- We may say that we only know of the " Brad-
are best adapted for general use among all classes, tain testimonials for their pianofortes. Here is bury" piano manufactured by F. G. Smith &
as their is less danger of anything getting out of one house that advertises each Sunday or two, a Company. If there is a fraudulent piano sold in
repair."
long letter from Franz Liszt, setting forth in glow- Washington under a somewhat similar name, like
" Are orguinettes supplanting pianos and ing terms the wonderful merits of their piano, " Bradbury & Company," Ave should imagine that
claiming that it is the best that this great pianist F. G. Smith who has a branch store there would
organs?"
" I would not say that, but rather that people ever heard.
put a stop to the fraud. Are our correspondents
Another house also offers the public another sure that they have the name of the piano correct
having organs and pianos in their possession are
letter
from
this
celebrated
man,
in
which
the
glad to add another instrument to the list as a
as we have not yet heard that Mr. Smith has
new attraction. Then again, many people buy the merits of another maker's instrument are set forth changed his trade mark from Bradbury to Brad-
in
as
extravagant
terms.
orguinettes who are so situated that they cannot
bury & Company.
Madame Rive-King is made to say over her own
have the larger aud more expensive instruments. I
refer, of course, to the cheaper style of orguinettes. signature that the Steinway piano and the Weber
AN INTERESTING CATALOGUE.
We have a heavy trade among people residing be- have been about equally admired by her. A whole
tween Fourth and Sixth avenues and most of them opera company signs a testimonial in regard to the
E have received an elaborate catalogue of
have pianos and organs in their parlors. One Weber piano, when as individuals they have ex-
the musical merchandise, piano materials,
gentleman came in the other day and bought an expressed different opinions in regard to other piano stools, etc., sold by William Tonk & Bro. t
orguinette in order, he said, to get up an im- nstruments which have been quite as glowing in at No. 47 Maiden Lane. It is the first catalogue
promptu dance when desirable and no one was commendation.
compiled by the firm on its own account. The
present who could play the piano. Another cus-
A certain pianist was greatly in love with the firm's connection with the music business dates
tomer was a gentleman who has a piano, organ Weber piano when he lived in the East, and now from 1860. In the pamphlet are catalogued the
and harp iu his parlor."
his devotion is only to the Steinway, as letters most desirable styles of every article, enabling the
dated in two different places testify.
purchaser to make a selection without any diffi-
•'Your export trade must be large "
The public question these testimonials, and are culty and with a guarantee of satisfactory results.
" I t is indeed very large. We are shipping
goods from Alaska to South America and from the learning the truth about them. They are simply
Sandwich Islands to Australia. Recently, we had paid for advertisements that only show that pian-
THE GAZETTE.
several drafts from Valparaiso and from Asiatic ists like that instrument the best that brings them
Russia. The other day we sent $1,000 worth of in the pleasing ducat.
J. W. Edwards & Co., music dealers of Madison,
The virtuoso plays the Chickering one year for Iowa, have been closed up by the sheriff.
instruments to India."
At the San Francisco Minstrels, Harry Kennedy a high sum, then when he is unable to obtain a
Cyrus O. Peck, dealers iu pianos and organs,
mystifies the audiences nightly in his ventriloquis- prolongation of his engagement, he goes to Stein-
tic performances with automatic figures. One of way or Weber, and the various letters of testimon- and wife, of Clinton, la., have been released from
the figures plays a musical cabinet organ with a ial which he gives only serve to mark the line of a realty mortgage of 81,800.
keyboard, the instrument being worked under the his career.
George H. White, of Marshalltown, la., dealer
Now all this instead of benefitting trade, only in musical instruments, has given a chattel mort-
stage. The performance is encored nightly.
serves to mislead the public. A pianoforte should gage on his stock for $1,100.
WILLIAM TONK & BRO.
stand upon its own merits, and not depend upon
Bobbins & Yates, music dealers of Oregon, have
Willaim Tonk & Bro., importers and dealers in the testimonials of paid artists.
dissolved partnership, their business being con-
musical merchandise at No. 47 Maiden Lane,
THE PUBLISHING HOUSES.
tinued by J. H. Robbins & Sons.
have been in their present quarters since May
As the holiday season approaches, new publi-
1 only, but have been enjoying a very encourag- cations are put upon the market to serve as gifts
George A. Ramseyer, of Dobb's Ferry, N. Y,,
ing amount of patronage. Mr. Tonk said recent- for Christmas tide. I notice in the stocks on hand has patented a Piano Stool. Application filed June
ly to a reporter of T H E MUSICAL CRITIC AND larger and better selections of good music and 24, 1881. No. of Patent, 249,991.
TRADE REVIEW that the firm started in Maiden many books of costly make and handsome design.
B. A. Blere, an Ohio piano manufacturer, has
Lane with the advantage of an entirely new stock Music publishers are making bids for this kind of
given a chattel mortgage for $1,000.
of musical merchandise which was paid for in trade.
cash. The firm is also fortunate in having largo,
Ira N. Goff, a piano dealer of Rhode Island, was
It is reported that we are to have still another
convenient rooms which have been secured at a music house here, which will add to the long list recently robbed of $500.
low rontal. A specialty of the firm is piano stools, of firms now in business.
etc., which are manufactured by their music firm,
THE WEBER HOUSE.
William Tonk & Company. Mr. Tonk has been in
COOL.
the musical trade twenty-thi'ee years. He started
The large store of this manufacturer on Wabash '""pHERE is an alleged musical paper pub-
out when he was eleven years of age.
avenue presents a very brilliant appearance and is X lished in St. Louis every month. Its latest
one of the most attractive looking warerooms in
contains a few paragraphs taken verbatim
the city. Its position, however, is a little off the issue
from the MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
We
most
central
street
for
business,
but
is
none
the
C. A. Zoebiseh, of C. A. Zoebisch & Sons, im- ess elegant on that account.
are not desirous of being quoted by that paper,
porters of musical instruments at No. 46 Maiden
but if our articles are printed by this so-called
A. REED & SONS.
Lane, is one of the veterans of the trade. He has
musical paper, common decency should dictate
been at it since 1840.
This house has made a great advance in the past that the source should be mentioned.
T
A
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