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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
FROM PENNSYLVANIA'S MUSICAL CENTER.
Home-Comers Help Business—Estey Small Grand a Wonderful Creation—Miller Lyric Grand in
Demand—Ludwig Style That Strikes the Popular Fancy—Lester Activity—Woolley's Good
Work—Pease with Strawbridge & Clothier—Herzberg's Fine Line.
(Special to The Review.)
Philadelphia, Pa., September 5, 1905.
The piano business in Philadelphia has started
in in the most encouraging way for September.
The summer out-of-town colonies have begun to
arrive home, and are preparing for the winter,
which is evident by the big increase in the num-
ber of piano shoppers. A number of very satis-
factory sales were made the beginning of this
week, and there is not a Philadelphia dealer to
be found but who is predicting a most active
business for the remaining months of the year.
I have never seen the Philadelphia dealers
stocked up as they are at present. You cannot
go into a wareroom but you find all available
space taken, and those dealers who have been
complaining right along that they have been un-
able to get any stock on hand, have ceased to
make that statement as, through some means or
other, they have been able to get an ample
supply.
One of the most interesting things I have seen
in the Philadelphia warerooms this week is the
new infant that has arrived at the Estey ware-
rooms. It is their latest baby—an Estey tiny
grand—and Mr. Woolley and the rest of the em-
ployes of the house are as tickled with it as if
it was flesh and blood. And well they can be,
for just at this time a squalling infant is not one
of the most desirable things to have about, but
this little fellow is just as pretty and just a'j
sweet in tone as any one could desire, and I pre-
dict that there is a very wide field for this un-
named as yet Estey baby, only five feet in length,
but capitally proportioned, and with a voice,
which in strength and sweetness, sets to shame
many of its bigger brothers of pianodom. The
baby's scale is unusually even, and its body is
very similar in construction to the other three
grands made by the Estey Company; its legs are
just as shapely, but of a little difference in carv-
ing, and contains all the latest features of the
Estey factory. The piano will be sold for $650,
and is one of the best bargains in Philadelphia.
Besides this new baby grand, the Estey factory
makes a small grand, a parlor grand and a con-
cert grand, and are also manufacturers of four
different styles of uprights, named X, B, C and
D. X is their smallest upright, and is one of
the smallest uprights made by any firm, and
they have quite a large sale on it. The style D
in butternut case has always been a special with
the Estey firm, and it is also a very popular
instrument. The Estey Company are purchasers
of all the butternut veneer coming into the
country.
Edward M. Read, of St. Louis, was in town
again this week for several days, and has started
for home. Mr. Read has many interesting views
as to the piano business, but one thing particu-
larly striking is his opinion that the player piano
would not be long lived.
William M. Jenkins, of Richmond, Va., was an-
other Philadelphia visitor this week.
The Estey Company have just completed a very
fine pipe organ in the St. Elizabeth's Episcopal
Church at 16th and Mifflin streets, and have also
completed a large pipe organ in the Trinity M.
E. Church of Ridgway, Pa.
Miss Katherine Funcheon has started on a two
weeks' vacation, during which she will visit Bos-
ton, Portland, Maine, and other New England
coast cities. She went to Boston from Philadel-
phia by boat.
Eldorus Hurff, who went to Williamstown, N.
J., some weeks ago on a vacation, and took sick
while there, is still seriously ill, and his family
have been unable to move him home.
James C. Miller, after a visit of several
months in Massachusetts, part of the time at the
Boston Miller house, will return to Philadelphia
on Thursday of this week.
The Miller house has been doing an excellent
business this summer in. Mr. Miller's absence,
particularly in the Miller Lyric grands, more
of which style of instruments have been sold by
the Miller house than by any other Philadelphia
house.
The most popular seller at present, and for
some time past, in the Philadelphia house of Lud-
wig, is their Style I, Louis IV. It is a very
handsome instrument in appearance, beautiful in
tone, and has undoubtedly struck the popular
fancy more than any upright piano yet turned
out by the Ludwig factory. The firm are get-
ting out two or three new styles for the fall
trade, which they expect to become great fa-
vorites. Miss Bertha Krugg, the Ludwig stenog-
rapher, has gone on a two weeks' vacation to the
Pocono Mountains, and William Jamison has
just returned from his vacation at Sea Isle City.
The Lester Piano Co. are in better shape than
they have been for some years, in spite of the
fact that they have had an unusually busy sum-
mer. They have already on their books large
orders for fall and early winter shipment, and
they expect to more than double this year their
output of grands. It has been a long time since
a Philadelphia manufacturer has turned out any-
thing that has been so universally well received
as has the Lester grand piano.
D. E. Woolley is anxiously awaiting the return
to this city of several members of the executive
committee of the local Piano Dealers' Associa-
tion, in order that he can get them together to
take up the winter's work. Mr. Woolley is very
much gratified with the result he obtained in try-
ing to prevent'gyp dealers from at least advertis-
ing themselves in the local papers. He has suc-
ceeded to the extent that the newspapers have
refused such advertisements, and several of the
former "gyp" dealers have had to place ware-
room signs over their places of business in or-
der to attract customers.
Through the effort of the Association's black-
list most of the undesirable people who have
been preying on the dealers have had to forsake
the vocation, and at the present time Philadelphia
is practically clear of all these men, and it has
been some time since any of the firms have
suffered a loss through trickery by these people.
The results thus obtained, principally through
the continued effort of Mr. Woolley, has led him
to believe that there is nothing impossible in
the Philadelphia trade, as to undesirable busi-
ness methods, that cannot be regulated or elimi-
nated, if the proper effort is made.
Strawbridge & Clothier are expecting almost
daily their first shipment of Pease pianos, and
they are very well satisfied that they have been
able to add these fine instruments to their list of
agencies.
The Strawbridge & Clothier depart-
ment affirm that they are going to continue the
handling of the Steck piano, and will also get the
Steck Pianola, while on the other hand, the
Heppe people are just as positive in their affirm-
ing that the Steck piano and the Steck Pianola
will shortly be added to the Heppe stock. Who
is right and who is wrong it is hard to say, but
at present the Heppes have the best of the argu-
ment, as they have in stock and have been sell-
ing the Steck Pianolas, while none of these in-
struments have yet been on the floor of the
Strawbridge department. Mr. Hillebrand, who
is in charge of the Heppe player department, is
most enthusiastic over the Steck Pianola, which
instrument he says is strongly admired by all
the musicians whom he has called in to pass
judgment upon it. When Mr. Hillebrand's at-
tention was called to a statement made by an-
other Philadelphia dealer to the effect that the
inside player was a question of whether it would
or would not be successful, he became very much
stirred up on the subject, and said that it was
the old story that he had been hearing ever since
the Aeolian Co. first put the Aeolian organs on
the market, and again when the Pianolas were
gotten out, and both of these instruments had
proven the assertion that they were fads to be
false.
Harry Herzberg feels that he has a surprise
up his sleeve to be sprung upon his father when
he returns this month from Europe. He has
more than the usually successful summer, and is
satisfied that his father will be more than sat-
isfied with the results obtained. While Mr. Herz-
berg, Jr., may have full reasons for being elated,
yet the Herzberg warerooms in the Snellenberg
store is one of the easiest propositions in Phila-
delphia. It is really a self-selling department, in
that the elder Herzberg has been in the business
so long, has established such a big clientele, has
the reputation of being thoroughly reliable and
honest, and has a line of pianos second to none
in any other Philadelphia store—that is the rea-
son why the pianos would sell themselves with-
out an effort. Uf course, the name of Kranich &
Bach has long been established in this city as
the best, the very best in piano construction, and
the purchasing of a Kranich & Bach is heredi-
tary, running from the grandmother of the past
to the granddaughter of the present generation.
Then the Mehlin is such a prime favorite here
that it is hardly second to the Kranich & Bach
with the customers of the Herzberz department.
In fact, it is not unusual for a customer to drop
into the Herzberg department for a K. & B. and
take a Mehlin instead, or vice versa, the ex-
planation being due entirely to the ear, as the
tone of these two high-grade pianos are different,
the one being soft and melodious, and the other
more brilliant, but with other satisfying qualities.
ULLIHANN WILL REPRESENT KNABE
In European Territory—A Traveling Man of
Wide Experience.
Mr. Ludwig Ullmann, who for many years
has represented the Needham Piano & Organ Co.,
of New York, in Berlin, has accepted a similar
position in Europe for William Knabe & Co., of
Baltimore. Mr. Ullmann has won the record of
being one of the best traveled men in the piano
and organ business on the other side of the At-
lantic. He has visited practically every country
in Europe and Asia, and is splendidly equipped
as far as experience and a knowledge of the craft
goes. With the Knabe piano he is certain to
add further to his laurels.
WILL PLAY CHICKERING IN RECITALS-
W. T. Frederick, the prominent Chickering
representative in Pittsburg, and who controls a
number of establishments throughout Pennsyl-
vania, has planned for an active musical season
the coming fall. Mr. Monguio, the Spanish
pianist, who is to arrive in this country in
about two weeks, will be heard in a number of
recitals on the Chickering, and his itinerary is
now being arranged. By this means, Mr. Fred-
erick will bring the merits of the Chickering
to the notice of a wide constituency in a most
pleasing and effective way. Enterprise of this
kind is to be commended. It speaks eloquently
of Mr. Frederick's interest in the Chickering
piano, which has world-wide honors to its
credit. He is able by this plan to impress the
people with its remarkable musical qualities.
No more effective advertising campaign could
be conceived than this, and Mr. Frederick is to
be congratulated.
CALVIN WHITNEY OPTIMISTIC.
Calvin Whitney, president of the A. B. Chase
Co., Norwalk, Ohio, who recently returned home
after a visit to Denver, Col., reported trade for
July and August as unusually satisfactory. He
said: "Our business for these months has been
from twenty-five to thirty per cent, better than
for the same period last year. I expect that the
fall season will equal all expectations."
Burglars were very busy in Cleveland, O., last
Sunday, and managed to steal a typewriter from
the Starr Piano Co.'s store at 317 Huron street.
As the doors and windows were locked when
Manager Lincoln arrived Monday morning he is
puzzled as to how the burglars gained entrance.