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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
The Announcement of Paris Awards-
BALDWINS WIN THE GRAND PRIX AND THE BALDWIN SUPERINTENDENT A GOLD MEDAL
LUDWIG GETS A SILVER MEDAL—THE ADEK CO. A BRONZE MEDAL OTHER
AWARDS OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST CONNECTED WITH THE
EXHIBITS—THE WORK OF THE JURY.
Last Monday information was received Exposition, and every large French manu-
by cable concerning the various exhibitors facturer of pianofortes, for instance, had as
who won distinguished awards at the Paris much space as was allotted to the entire mu-
Exposition. The Baldwin Piano Co. of sical department of any foreign nation. Fa-
Cincinnati, received the highest award— voritism of the same kind marked the dis-
the Grand Prix.
tribution of prizes. Frenchmen formed two-
It was believed that the Baldwin Co. on thirds of the jury and looked after French
account of its magnificent exhibit would interests so successfully that though the
receive the highest honors; thus the Bald- aggregate of foreign exhibitors was larger
win house, of comparatively recent origin than that of the French, France neverthe-
as a manufacturing concern, steps forward less carried off the bulk of the valuable
into the front rank of world-renowned prizes, says H. E. Krehbiel, one of the jury
piano manufacturers.
of awards at Paris. To all the foreign
This is the first time in the history of in- countries combined went 182 awards (out-
ternational expositions where the highest side of the recompense to collaborators);
awards have been bestowed upon an ex- to France, 131, the distribution in respect
hibitor who had not received great recog- of value being as follows: Grand prizes, 10
nition at previous international expositions. foreign, 14 French; gold medals, 18 fore-
The Ludwig Piano Co. received a silver ign, 26 French; silver medals, 62 foreign,
medal, and the Adek Manufacturing Co. a 38 French; bronze medals, 65 foreign, 25
bronze medal. We herewith append the French; honorable mention, 27 foreign, 28
French. It would be unfair, however, to
complete list of awards:
Adek Manufacturing Co., New York, withhold the statement that, except in the
automatic pianoforte player, bronze medal. pianoforte department, the French exhibit
American Steel and Wire Co., piano- was much superior to the foreign. Four
principal pianoforte manufacturers of Paris
forte strings, grand prix.
Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, piano- were on the jury (that honor outweighing
commercially and socially the highest pos-
fortes, grand prix.
Bohman, Joseph, Chicago, stringed in- sible recompense—a grand prix), and the
head of another house was director of
struments, silver medal.
Consalvi, Icillo, Boston, banjo, bronze the Department of Liberal Arts, in
which the musical exhibit was comprised.
medal.
Flagg Manufacturing Co., Boston, zith- Since membership of a jury by any mem-
ber of a firm rendered the products of such
ers, silver medal.
Hamilton Organ Co., Chicago, piano- firm "hors concours," it will be obvious to
all acquainted with the state of pianoforte
fortes and reed organs, silver medal.
Kendall, C. B., Boston, automatic banjo, manufacture in France that the jury's
awards by no means furnish a criterion of
bronze medal.
Ludwig & Co., New York, pianofortes the relative value of the instruments
and automatic pianoforte player,' silver brought into competition. Houses such as
Erard, Pleyel, Herz, Focke, Gaveau and
medal.
Bord
were lifted out of the fight, and their
Manello, Angelo, New York, mandolins,
representatives,
following French prece-
silver medal.
dent,
gave
high
honors
to Gouttiere and
Reindahl, Knute, Chicago, violins, hon-
Kriegelstein,
which,
for
French reasons,
orable mention.
were
treated
as
if
they
were
worthy of
The official catalogue of the Exposition
comparison
with
Bluthner,
of
Germany,
showed thirty-eight American exhibitors
and
Broadwood,
of
England.
in Class XVII, but more than half of them
were ruled out by the jury on the ground
England's indifference to the Exposition
that their exhibits were parts of instru- was greater than that of the United States.
ments exhibited by others. There were The house of Broadwood placed a single
fifteen or twenty additional awards, how- grand pianoforte in the British Pavilion
ever, to collaborators, of which the high- and demanded judgment on it, which was
est, a gold medal, went to John W. Macy, grudgingly given by the French members
the superintendent of the Baldwin factory. of the jury, who did not wish to show so
The D. H. Baldwin Co.,. of Cincinnati, much honor to a house that had treated the
also exhibited a model of its factory made Exposition with so little consideration.
to scale, and a series of photographs show- The difficulty illustrated in this case embar-
ing modern American methods of manu- rassed all the foreign exhibitors except the
facture; but this the musical jury refused Baldwin Piano Co. Whenever a foreign
to consider. It was afterward installed in juror asked a high award for an exhibitor
Class VI, "Special Industrial and Com- from his country he was met with the ob-
mercial Education," and there obtained a jection that the exhibit in question was so
small as to be unworthy of a great Paris-
gold medal.
ian Exposition Universelle, and the French-
THE SHOWING MADE BY THIS COUNTRY.
The showing made in the list of awards men, singularly lacking in logic, could
by the United States is in the highest de- not or would not see the force of the
gree creditable, considering the smallness answer, that their Government was
of America's exhibition. France's showing responsible for the shortcoming complained
surpasses it, of course, but it is France's of. In the case of the United States the
old manufacturers who had won fame at
previous expositions refused to compete,
and left the road open to an enterprising
competitor from the West to make a record
that will never be forgotten in the history
of world's expositions—in Europe, at least.
CANADIAN PRIZE WINNERS.
It was significant that the French mem-
bers of the jury looked upon their Ameri-
can colleagues as the guardians of the
English and Canadian interests, and mani-
fested as unselfish an interest as they dared
in the products sent from our neighboring
British province. Canada's prizes were as
follows: Barthelmes, pianoforte actions,
bronze medal; Dominion Organ and Piano
Co., Bowmanville, pianofortes and reed
organs, silver medal; Knaggs, W., Toron-
to, violins, bronze medal; Morris-Field-
Rogers Co., Listowel, actions and piano-
fortes, bronze medals; Newcombe & Co.,
Toronto, pianoforte (a fine exhibit), gold
medal; Pratte & Co., Montreal, piano-
fortes and accessories, silver medal; Wil-
liams, R. S. &Co., Hamilton, violins, hon-
orable mention.
PRIZES CARRIED OFF BY FRANCE.
The grand prizes carried off by France
were distributed as follows:'—Abbey, E.
& J., Versailles, church organs; Alex-
andre, Pere et Fils, Paris, reed organs;
Besson, F., Paris, brass instruments; Col-
lin, Mezin, Paris, violins; Evette & Schaef-
fer, Paris, wind instruments; Gouttiere,
Edmond, pianofortes; Hel, Joseph, Lille,
violins; Kriegelstein et Cie., Paris, piano-
fortes; Merklin et Cie., Paris, church
organs; Mustel, Pere et Fils, Paris, reed
organs; Mutin, Charles, Paris, church
organs; Pinet, Leon, Paris, accessories;
Silvestre, Hippolyte, Paris, violins; Societe
Anonyme des Acieres et Forges de Firminy,
Firminy, pianoforte strings.
Outside of those already mentioned the
winners of grand prizes in the musical de-
partment were Becker, pianofortes, St. Pe-
tersburg; Diderichs,pianofortes, St. Peters-
burg ; Bluthner, Leipsic,pianofortes; Schied-
mayer, Stuttgart, pianofortes; Kiendl,
Vienna, stringed instruments; Colla A.
Rome, violin strings, and the Brothers
Hals, of Christiania, Norway, pianofortes.
Wagner & Levien, of Mexico, whose exhi-
bit of an upright pianoforte with a case of
native wood, carved with designs taken
from the ancient sculptures of Mexico,won
a silver medal. '
THE JURY OF AWARDS.
The jury that made these awards con-
sisted of fifteen regular members (titu-
laires) and six substitutes (suppleants),
four of whom represented France, one
Italy and one Portugal. The titulaires,who
had the full right of voice and vote on all
occasions, were nine Frenchmen and six
foreigners, the latter being one German,
one Austrian, one Swiss, one Hungarian,
one Russian and one American. The com-
plete list was as follows:
Alfred Acoulon, Paris, manufacturer of
wind instruments (secretary).
Gustave Bernadel, Paris, luthier to the
Conservatoire.
A. Bord, Paris, piano manufacturer.
Eugene de Bricqueville, Versailles, or-
ganist (rapporteur).