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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW.
122
KELLER BROTHERS.
THEY PRODUCE AN EXCELLENT PIANO—ABOUT TO EN-
LARGE THEIR FACILITIES-BUSINESS INCREASES
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF MR. JOSEPH KELLER.
M
R. JOSEPH KELLER, late president of the Kel-
ler Piano Company, of Bridgeport, Conn., has
dissolved his connection with that firm, and
joined forces with the firm of Keller Brothers, piano
manufacturers of the same city, of which organization
he is the head.
Mr. Keller informs us that the Keller Brothers firm
are enjoying a very lively business, one, in fact, which
strains their resources to the utmost, and renders neces-
sary a new factory with considerably extended facilities.
Such a factory will very soon be occupied by them.
The Keller family numbers among its members
many noted piano men, reared and thoroughly trained
in the various branches of piano construction by their
father, who occupies a responsible position in one of
the prominent piano factories of New York city. Mr.
Joseph Keller, who has invented and patented several
excellent contrivances for the improvement of the piano-
forte, is especially skilled and gifted in his chosen art.
The Keller piano has been before the public many
years, and has won an enviable reputation, upon its
merits alone, wherever sold. It has a clear, pure, tone;
a pliant and easy touch; and is built upon a system
that guarantees great durability.
We predict for Mr. Joseph Keller, in his new field of
enterprise, an honorable and prosperous career.
From New Orleans, La., comes the announcement of
the incorporation of the Louis Grunewald Company,
with Louis Grunewald, president ; W. W. Grunewald,
treasurer ; A. Pollatsek, secretary. The objects of the
company are the manufacture and sale of pianos and
other musical instruments, etc. Capital Stock, $100,000.
ELECTRIC PIANO CO.
T
HIS is a new corporation, just formed, with head-
quarters in Boston ; F. W. Bailey, president.
They are at once going into the market to man-
ufacture electrical pianos and attachments, under pat-
ents recently purchased from the yEolian Organ &
Music Co., of N. Y.
KIND WORDS.
T
HE Music TRADE REVIEW has issued a very inter-
esting fall number of some sixty pages, replete
with information, and printed in an attractive
manner. A call has been sent out by this journal for a
preliminary meeting of representatives of the musical
industries of America, to be held at Clarendon Hail, on
Tuesday, September 17, for the formation of a protect-
ive union of the piano and organ makers of America.
The Music TRADE REVIEW has been pushing this pro-
ject so successfully that the wealthiest members of the
trade have enlisted themselves in its support and the
editors of the paper, Jeff Davis Bill and Edward Lyman
Bill, are confident that the matter will be brought to a
successful issue,—N. Y. Evening Telegram.
SOLD FIFTY YEABS AGO.
THE DUNHAM PIANO COMPANY HEAR OF A STALWART
OLD PIANO, IN USE IN ILLINOIS, THAT WAS SOLD
BY THE PREDECESSORS OF THEIK PRESENT
FIRM. IN 1839.
f I >HE Dunham Piano Company, N. Y., received, a
I
few days ago, a letter of historic interest. It
-*• came from Henry [. Marshall of Collinsville,
111., and conveyed the information that the writer had
in his possession a Stodart, Worcester & Dunham
piano that must have been made in 1S37, and that he
thought a great deal of it, but that as his daughter's
teachers pronounced it '" out of date," and he was not
able to invest in a new one, he desired to know on what
terms he could exchange the old favorite for a more
modern-looking instrument.
This communication was addressed to " Stodart,
Worcester & Dunham, Piano Manufacturers, New York
City,' and naturally fell into the hanos of The Dunham
Piano Co., the successors of lhat ancient house. On
investigation the Dunham Co. discovered that the
piano in question was sold in 1839. What a record !
How many other piano firms can point to such a speci-
men of manufacture as that old instrument down in
Illinois, whose tones have delighted human ears during
fifty successive summers and winters ?
The firm of Stodart, Worcester & Dunham were
among the pioneer manufacturers whose united efforts
stopped the stream of importation, and turned the tide
to Europe by making instruments at home superior to
all otheis in the world. This firm made pianos EO
much better than those then in use that they com-
manded a large share of the business of the whole
country. After a few years the concern dissolved, and
was reorganized as Stodart & Dunham. In 1849 J o n n
B. Dunham assumed the entire business, and carried it
along until 1867, when he took his sons into partner-
ship.
A HAPPY MAN.
Mr. Rudolph Gross, of Messrs. Wessell, Nickel &
Gros«, N. Y., the famous manufacturers of pianoforte
actions, experienced an agreeable paternal sensation un
the 30th ult., when he was presented by Mrs. Gross with
a bouncing baby girl. He considers himself even
luckier than Mr. Dicker.
TWO NEW CORPORATIONS.
T
HE Duluth Music Company has been incorpor-
ated in Minnesota by C. E. Dyer and Wm. H
Lee, of Minneapolis, and J. M. Anderson, of
Duluth, who will carry on a general piano, organ, and
music business. Capital stock, $50,000.
BOSTON, MASS., September 24, 1889.
Messrs. BILL & BILL :
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW of New York is the lead-
ing paper in that line published in the United States.—
The Whistle (El Verano, Cal.)
IT is announced that Decker & Son, N. Y., are about
to break ground, with the view of building a piano fac-
tory, near the Boulevard on 134th street.
THE Vocalion Organ is on view at the warerooms of
Denton & Cottier, Buffalo, N. Y., where its general ex-
cellences and its adaptability to small churches and
clubrooms are recognized.
J. & C. FISCHER, N. Y., contemplate the erection at an
early date of a new factory building adjoining their
present factory. The new structure will measure 75X
100 ft., and will be nine stories in height. Even with
their present enormous facilities this firm are totally
unable to fill, with anything like promptitude, the
orders which pour in upon them in an unceasing tor-
rent.
A PIANO and organ wareroom has been opened at
Parsons, Kan., bv A. Larkins.
MR. DENSMORE, President of the Brown-Barron
Piano Co., Chicago, 111., died last week at his home in
Brooklyn, N. Y.
CONOVER BROTHERS, N. Y., are winning many testi-
monials in respect of their pianos. They are at present
making splendid exhibits throughout the United States,
notably at San Francisco, CaL, at the Vermont State
Fair, at Kalamazoo, Mich., and at Pittsburgh, Pa. This
house also recently shipped five instruments for exhibi-
tion at the fair in Piedmont, Ga. Mr. Frank Conover
will shortly start on an extended tour, visiting Chicago
and Quincy, 111., St. Louis, Mo., Cincinnati, O., Pitts-
burg, Pa., Washington, D. C, and Philadelphia, Pa.
WE understand that Mr. F. H. Underwood, formerly
GENTS:—I see that the '"rooster" is out. May he of the Smith American Organ Co., Boston, Mass., will
keep crowing until there is such an organization of the shortly sail for Glasgow, Scotland, where he has en-
Piano and Organ men as will be a credit to that industry. gaged in business of a permanent character. Mr. Un-
Yours,
derwood was United States Consul at Glasgow during
GEO. M. GUILD.
the late administration.
OTTO WISSNER, Brooklyn, N. Y., has been permanent-
ly prohibited from using any Weber stencil.
THE new piano factory of Decker & Son, N. Y., is in
course of erection on Southern Boulevard and 135th
street, in this city. This firm are doing a very brisk
business.
F. G. HOWE, of Taylor's Music House, Springfield
Mass., was in this city a few days ago selecting stock-
He selected a large number of Weber and Haines Bro-
thers pianos, two makes in which his firm are doing an
enormous business.
A SINGULAR story of forgery is told by A.M.Warner
& Co., of No. 40 Lispenard street, New York city, im-
porters of piano scarfs, lambrequins, etc. On returning
last week from a prolonged tour abroad, Mr. Warner
was informed that a certain banker had called to see
him and had left a very urgent message for him to
come to his office as soon as possible. Before leaving
the banker showed one of Mr. Warner's clerks the sig,
nature of A. M. Warner & Co. on a slip of paper
folded down, and asked if it was the genuine signature
of the firm. The clerk said he did not think it was,
Mr. Warner at once proceeded to the banker in question
who showed him a note drawn by Lowenherz & Lans-
berg for $1,400, and signed A. M. Warner & Co. Mr.
Warner at once recognized that the note was forged.
Upon investigation it appeared that since January last,
Lowenherz & Lansberg, who were jobbers and impor-
ters in Walker street, N. Y., had discounted bogus notes
in the name of the Warner firm to the extent of $7,000
or $9,000. Detectives succeeded in discovering Lans-
berg, who made a full confession, and killed himself
the next day. Lowenherz is believed to have fled to
Germany. It would seem as though the bank had been
grossly careless, as Mr. Warner asserts that no attempt
had been made to imitate the signature of his firm.
How many other firms' names the forgers used in a
similar manner the bank refused to say, but on the
Warner bogus notes alune they are out several thous-
and dollars. A. M. Warner & Co. are known to every
music house in ihe country. The name of the banking
house which bought the forged notes is Adler & Her-
man, 1 55 Broadway, N. Y. A. M. Warner & Co. will
not lose a dollar by the forgeries, as all the loss will
fall on the bankers.
THE agency for the Kroeger & Sons' piano in To-
ledo, O., is now held by Mr. C. J. Woolley, formerly
with the Whitney and Currier Company of that city.
THE first piano built in Paterson since the fire at Her-
lich's factory, on the morning of June 6, will be on ex-
hibition to-day, and Mr. J. J. Swick, the enterprising
manufacturer, invites his friends to his new establish-
ment, No. 157 Van Houten street, where he has begun
life anew. He returns thanks to the kind dealers who
have assisted him. He has now eleven pianos on the
floor, which will be ready for shipment this week, and
has orders for two hundred from his old dealers. Fif-
teen men are now working on instruments and more
are to be taken on next week. With the assistance of
the dealers, who know the value of the pianos, Mr.
Swick will build a new factory.—Paterson (N. J.) Call.
C. H. UTLEY, Buffalo, N. Y., is in the city. He
inlorms us that he finds it impossible to obtain the
supplies of Haines Bros.' pianos as rapidly as his cus-
tomers dssire, and that his sole business here is to see
whether by personal representations he could not in-
duce that firm to make shipments more frequently.
Mr. Utley has just placed in the Iroquois Hotel in Buf-
falo, which has recently been erected at a cost of over a
million dollars, one of Haines Bros.' very finest upright
grands, with case of antique oak, richly carved. This
instrument is one of the most superb ever turned out
of a factory, and is the subject of constant and enthusi-
astic praise. Mr. Utley has now introduced the Haines
piano into all the more prominent hotels in Buffalo,
and into most of the theatres in that city. During last
week he sold eight of these instruments, of which he is
one of the foremost apostles.
THE celebrated Haines Brothers (N. Y.) pianos were
awarded first premium at the display of high class
pianos conducted by Foster, Hennessey & Co. in the
annex to Domestic Hall, Rochester, N. Y., last month.
AT the recent piano exhibit of Wood Brothers, Piits-
field, Mass., the pianos of Haines Brothers, N. Y.,
Steinway & Sons, N. Y., and Kranich & Bach, N. Y. f
attracted much attention. Though Messrs. Wood did
not enter for a premium, the fair authorities, to show
their appreciation of the efforts made by that firm,
awarded them first premium.