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THE MUS1G TRADE REVIEW.
nursing of the firm which gave it life. This
is the first piano manufactured in the United
States by Jonas Chickering, in 1823. It was
sold, on June 23d, of that year, to James H.
Bingham, a friend of Jonas Chickering for $275.
Mr. Bingham transferred it to Miss Thankful C.
Hutchinson, of Alstead, N. H., who subse-
quently sold it to a Mr. Kingsbury, a relative,
for his two daughters, Harriet and Sophia, liv-
ing at the same place. After their marriage
these ladies disposed of the piano to Mrs. Har-
riet Howard, of the same place, and upon her
death it became the property of Mr. William
Howard, her husband. Mr. George H. Chick-
ering, the surviving son of Jonas Chickering,
traced the seventy-year-old instrument to the
Howard home and repurchased it on June 15th,
1892, for $325. It was exhibited at the World's
Fair, and thence transferred to Boston, where it
will permanently remain.
NEVER BEEN REPAIRED.
It is a little five and a half octave piano, five
feet ten inches in length, two feet eleven and a
half inches high, eleven and one-half inches in
depth, and two feet five inches wide. It has
never been repaired, and naturally all the felt
and cloth, as well as nearly all the leather, are
much worn, but the metal and wood are in ex-
cellent condition and the tone is still there.
This venerable instrument will not be worried
in its old age by renovation or repair. It will
sit in cherished respect with its vitals shielded
from piano surgery, and never will have ham-
mered out upon it a vulgar tune like other little
old pianos, much less have cause to fear the ap-
proach of the slaughtering hatchet.
But if the same little piano has any feeling it
will weep in silence for the fate of its poor de-
generate brethren who are tumbling down hill
at the hundred per month rate, fast disintegrat-
ing into so much old wood and wire to make
way for the huge output of the modern ware-
room.
AT the recent election for officers of the Behr
Bros. & Co., Mr. Henry Behr was elected presi-
dent and treasurer, Edward Behr, vice-president,
and Charles H. Burchard, secretary.
THE assignment of Franz Waldecker & Co. at
Washington, D. C, is announced. The assets
of the firm, consisting of stock and fixtures at
their store, 719 7th street, amounts to $17,508 ;
liabilities estimated at $1,939.
MR. CHARLES BECHT, of the Pease Piano Com-
pany has just returned from a successful New
England trip.
The Hardman Piano.
I I
knowledge of the great mass of American and
English people who are judges of a piano. We
put the money into our pianos and give our cus-
The Remarkable Enterprise of Hardman, tomers the benefit of every dollar saved by our
American method of doing business. Our study
Peck & Co.
consistently has been to satisfy the user of the
do not often make long extracts from piano and to convince him that the ' Hardman '
the business literature of any piano is the best by means of giving him what his own
house, as we think that the time-honored rule knowledge will ultimately tell him is the best.
of not using quotation marks any more than is We have too high an opinion of the good sense
necessary is a safe one. Occasionally, however, of Americans to attempt to blind them to facts.
the character of a purely business paper is so The day for this insult to the public is past, and
good as a sample of the best methods of putting whether the offenders are in high places in the
a thing before the public, that we feel justified piano trade or in low ones is immaterial; sensi-
in reproducing it. This is particularly excus- ble people understand it and resent it.
able when the manner of expression is justified
" Leading schools, colleges, clergymen, teach-
by the matter discussed, and every one who ers and dealers throughout the United States
knows anything of present piano advertisers testify with remarkable unanimity to the fair-
must be aware that in placing the Hardman ness of these methods and to the preference
piano before the public, Messrs. Hardman, Peck which they have given to the Hardman piano as
& Co. have used, invariably, the real points of a result of its inherent excellence and the man-
excellence contained in their piano as the text. ner in which it has been placed before them.
We, therefore, print the following extract as a
" Our intention is to make the Hardman piano
sample of what may be considered a legitimate as well known in the remote parts of the globe
and forcible statement on the part of the manu- as it is in this country, and every legitimate
facturers of the Hardman piano.
means will be undertaken to accomplish the ob-
It is an ambition
" A MATTER WHICH TPIE PUHLIC WILL UNDER- object of this ambition.
in
keeping
with
the
>spirit
of America, one
STAND.
which
has
sent
our
agricultural
implements,
"The question so frequently asked : ' To what
cause may be attributed the rapid and almost our sewing machines and our machinery to
startling success of the Hardman piano?' is every part of the civili/.ed world. America
easily an^weted. Novel excellence of construction makes the best pianos as she does the very
and simple methods of informing the public of the best of the articles to which we have referred
fact. Our business is transacted in all its de- and we intend to extend our trade wherever
partments upon certain well-defined, funda- music is known.
" The present course of the manufacturers of
mental principles, the maintenance of which we
the
Hardman piano, Messrs. Haidman, Peck &
have found to result in reputation and profit.
The Hardman piano is built with reference pri- Co., will be continued in the future. The same
marily to durability and tone quality. A fall, careful watchfulness of every detail of construct-
resonant, diapason tone is obtained by a con- ion will be observed, and the firm will ever be on
struction entirely different to that employed by the alert to improve its instruments by novel
other manufacturers,—one which was developed and legitimate means. The head of the house,
in our own factory, and which has never been Mr. Leopold Peck, by whom the present great
successfully imitated notwithstanding the many interests of the Hardman piano have been so
attempts to do so throughout the world. This brilliantly tvolved, will still give his undivided
' Hardman Tone ' never changes its quality, ap- attention, not only to the successful mainten-
preciably. It never gets thin and ' wiry,' but to ance of its reputation, but futther to advance its
the last maintains its beautiful sonority in position and add to its fame everywhere. "
Without assuming any responsibility for the
spite of any amount of use or almost unlimited
comparisons .made, although testifying with
abuse.
'' It was only necessary after having developed pleasure to the admirable qualities of the Hard-
such a remarkable piano to let the public know man piano, we must admit that the course of
about it, and this we have endeavored to do by this great house has constituted largely a new
purely legitimate means. We appeal to the departure in the American piano industry. To
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