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THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Baldwin grands he had in stock to Hon. Charles
C. Binney, of Chestnut Hill, last week.
November a Satisfactory Month in Quaker City Trade—Piano Movers Verify the Excellent
Conditions Prevailing—Heppe to Give Away Twenty-Five Square Pianos and on Thanks-
giving Proposes Burning More of Them—Regular Dealers Will Not.Soon be Gobbled Up
by Department Stores—Many Orders for Estey Organs—Wanamaker Activity—H. C. Pres-
sey on the Road—Lester Player Piano Increasing—Recent Visitors.
(Special to The Review.I
Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 21, 1906.
The first three weeks of November have been
very satisfactory to the piano trade; in fact,
the three fall months are closing very satisfac-
tory in every way. The excellent trade is no
doubt due to the general prosperity. And that
this trade is general is held out by the movers,
who have never been as busy as this fall. Raines
is the biggest of the Philadelphia movers, and he
handles from 40 to 60 pianos every week day.
John O'Harra, Patrick Meehan and Tom Byrne
are other Philadelphia movers who verify the ex-
cellent trade statement, each of the three having
been compelled to add to their force this fall in
men as well as in teams. Besides there are sev-
eral of our big piano houses that have their own
moving force, and this is letting out the depart-
ment stores, the pianos from which are sent out
b.v their store teams. From this brief statement
it can readily be seen how many pianos are go-
ing out of the Philadelphia warerooms every day,
and in most instances these pianos are placed in
desirable positions, and but a very small per
cent, ever reaches the warerooms again.
An interesting feature of the week was the
announcement by the Heppe firm that on Thanks-
giving Day they would give away twenty-five
square pianos to institutions making application
before November 23. Applicants must furnish
three references that they cannot afford to pur-
chase instruments. The only other condition is
that the persons who receive the pianos must
haul them home at their own expense. The firm
will dispose of 100 other square pianos on the
evening of Thanksgiving by burning them pub-
licly near the Nicetown and the North Philadel-
phia stations. A large number of organs, too old
for further service, will also be given to the
flames. The instruments, which will be given
away, together with those which will be burned,
represented a small fortune some years ago—
before they were crowded from the market by
the more desirable uprights.
With this Thanksgiving gift, during the year,
the Heppes will have given away 122 organs and
a half hundred pianos to institutions unable to
purchase instruments of any kind. In this fun-
e/al pyre will be worn-out Steinways, Chicker-
ings, Knabes, Stieffs, Heppes, Ravens; in fact, a
specimen of almost every build of piano that was
known to the people of the last several genera-
tions. There is one old Stieff which is elegantly
inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and when it was first
taken from the Stieff factory in Baltimore, it
probably made the possessor exceedingly proud of
such a magnificent thing of beauty.
To the novice reader this Heppe announcement
will strike him that this is an unnecessary de-
struction, but it will no doubt be an excellent
object lesson to the many hundreds of families
in Philadelphia who still cling to the old squares
for past associations, and hate, to give up a thing
that years ago had cost them many hundreds of
dollars.
The statement by Charles H. Fischer that the
regular piano dealers would eventually be gob-
bled up by the department stores—outside of the
stores controlled by manufacturers—and prob-
ably within five years—has led one of the men
to take exception by showing that such a thing
is impossible, and he cites the case of James G.
Ramsdell, who, he says, has been ten years in
trying to get out of the piano business, and he
has not gotten out of it yet, and is not likely to
in the next few years.
The Board of Directors of the Philadelphia
Piano Trade Association held a very interesting
meeting at the Estey warerooms on Tuesday,
the 13th, at which the work of the treasurer
was ratified in the Real Estate Trust reorganiza-
tion. A letter from Florence Heppe was read,
acknowledging the handsome framed resolutions
on the death of C. J. Heppe, presented to Mrs.
Heppe by the association. A number of applica-
tions for membersship in the association were
received, and approved, subject to the regular
routine.
The Estey Co. are continuing to place many
orders for pipe organs. This week they received
orders for organs to be placed in the Wesley M.
E. Church at Pleasantville, N. J.; the Lutheran
Church of the Transfiguration, this city; the
Holy Trinity Memorial at 22d and Spruce streets,
and are installing at present an organ in the
Roman Catholic Church of St. John's Cantius,
Philadelphia, and in the Zion Lutheran Church
at Glen Rock, Pa.
At the Wanamaker store they announce that
they are doing a tremendous November business,
and indications point in every way to this month
being the biggest November in the history of the
house. Mr. Devereaux, of the Kurtzmann house,
was a visitor to the Wanamaker department this
week. The firm are getting in a great many new
Knabe grands and new Chickering grands. They
are short on Knabe-Angelus players, for they
have had such a tremendous business on this in-
strument that they have never been able to keep
up with it.
H. C. Pressey returned this week from a very
successful trip through the South. This is his
last trip of the year, a year that has brought
nothing but good luck to Mr. Pressey wherever
he has gone. In every section of the country he
has visited he has found the Lester forging
ahead, and everywhere has been receiving big or-
ders. At present every department of the Lester
piano factory is being worked to its utmost, and
only a visitor can believe how much work is be-
ing done at this factory. Every part of a piano
ia turned out there with the greatest kind of
care, and to the indifferent manufacturer at
least double the present output could be set ago-
ing, but the Lester will not force things to
quantity, but push hard every minute, with qual-
ity as the ultimate view. The demand for the
Lester concealed player has exceeded every ex-
pectation. One particular feature about this in-
strument that at once wins for it a sale when
properly explained and understood by the cus-
tomer, is that you don't have to manufacture air
by treading until your limbs ache, but the air is
received into the action by the suction process,
and from there is drawn by suction through the
tracker-board, and just enough air is sucked in
to do the work.
THE VALUE OF SPECIAL ROOMS.
For Piano Display Is Being Recognized by
Leading Houses—Decorative Treatment An-
other Matter Worth Considering—Sugges-
tions Along These Lines That Should Prove
Valuable to the Progressive Dealer.
Almost every week we read of some progressive
piano house having their quarters redecorated
and improved, and in almost every instance the
fact is mentioned that separate rooms have been
arranged and specially decorated to hold the
various lines of pianos.
The larger dealers everywhere are realizing
that best results may be obtained when a cer-
tain style of piano may be tested and its good
points brought out to much better advantage,
when it is separate from the general stock.
Where the customer is confronted with only
three or four pianos he or she, as the case may
be, is not confused, and a selection is more read-
ily made because the mind is concentrated upon
the contents of the parlor alone instead of an
open wareroom, where other customers are ex-
amining and testing instruments. Of course,
many dealers will remark that there will be the
increased cost of fitting up the rooms attract-
ively. Even so, it may be safely said that of
five sales that are lost on the wareroom floor be-
cause the prospective customer could not ar-
rive at a decision, two will be saved by the sepa-
rate room where comfortably seated, among at-
tractive surroundings, the tendency to find ob-
jections is reduced to a minimum and the sales-
man finds a more fertile field for his arguments.
And a word about the decorative treatment of
these rooms. It is always best to consult a good
decorator even at increased cost, for the after-
results will warrant it. Then the style of dec-
oration is considered. Say one be in Empire;
always effective and alluring for great originality
in the application of its various forms. Fit the
second out in Flemish style, imposing, but never-
theless suggesting comfort, and why not an
adoption of the German idea in the new art for
the third room, a style beautiful for its broad-
ness?
After the walls are treated in a satisfactory
manner the furnishings should receive consid-
eration. No matter what style the other decora-
tions, an Oriental rug of good quality, not neces-
sarily an expensive antique, hardly ever looks
out of place, and always lends an air of richness
to an apartment. Furniture, that is, chairs, set-
tees and small desks, should, of course, conform
with the general treatment. When the entire
decorating and furnishing is completed a piano
placed in such an environment has its beauty en-
hanced many fold.
The separate showroom is not a decided inno-
vation, merely an evolution following the grow-
F. A. North & Co. are doing a tremendous busi- ing tendency to place piano selling on a more or
ness in Scranton, Trenton and Philadelphia, at less art basis rather than looking upon it as a
their retail places, and the firm are moving purely commercial proposition, and even rehears-
heaven and earth to get a stock on hand that ing the matter in a purely commercial light, the
will not leave them in a bad way during the re- benefit accruing from an adoption of the above
mainder of the year. At present the North win- system for displaying pianos will result in more
dow is attracting lots of attention. It is ar- sales and increased profits that will pay the
ranged in the form of a room, with papered cost of the necessary alterations in a remarkably
walls and fine oil paintings, with a door at one short time.
side, and in the room are exhibited a Lester
quarter grand and a Lester upright.
HANDSOME STIEFF PUBLICITY.
Charles H. Doddridge, the Philadelphia repre-
sentative of D. H. Baldwin & Co., began last
A very handsome volume has been issued by
week his second year representing that firm in Charles M. Stieff, of Baltimore, which contains
Philadelphia, and it was the biggest week he had an interesting story, illustrated, of how the Stieff
since he opened. Mr. Doddridge had a visit dur- pianos are made, and how for more than 50 years
ing the week from Horace K. Blinn, the secretary they have been widely esteemed in this industry.
of the Baldwin Co., who has been making a tour Among the instruments illustrated and described
of all the branches. He told Mr. Doddridge that are style 76, style 68, style 69, style 70 uprights,
nowhere had he found a stock that was kept in and style 71 baby grand, style 43 parlor grand,
more artistic condition. He gave the staff of and style 44 concert grand. This volume is
salesmen a dinner, and followed it with a tech- superbly printed in two colors, the cover being
nical lecture on the Baldwin piano, which cer- embossed in gold. Literature of this kind must
tainly proved beneficial to every one who at- be productive of splendid results, and all inter-
tended. Mr. Doddridge sold one of the finest ested in its appearance have reason to feel proud.