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THE
10
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Business in All Branches Very Quiet—German Dealers Gaining Ground in British Market—Poor
Displays Made by London Piano Manufacturers at Franco-British Exhibition—Canada
Makes Fine Showing—Maharajah Buys Sixteen Gramophones—Perforated Music Co. Ltd.
Registers—Troubles of Parisian Piano Dealers—Trade Association Changes Name.
(Special to The Review.)
Review Office, 69 Basinghall Street,
London, Eng., July 16, 1908.
It would be useless to deny that business in
all branches of the music trade industry in this
country is very quiet. We have had more than
the usual amount of failures and financial reor-
ganizations, which seem inseparable from dun
times, but the members of the trade as a whole
are optimistic and hope that the autumn will wit-
ness a healthy improvement.
Our German
friends are slowly but surely undermining the
English manufacturer in the popular priced lines
of pianos and small musical instruments, yet we
look on and do nothing to meet this condition.
It is clear that this competition must be met it
the English music trade industry, at least in low
priced instruments, is to survive. We must
make pianos as cheap and as good or we must
discard our free trade ideas and impose a tariff.
•
*
•
•
The resignation of George Rose as factory
manager for John Broadwood & Son, Ltd., which,
by the way, was announced exclusively in my let-
ter some three or four weeks ago, continues to be
much discussed. Mr. Rose and the Broadwood
house both refuse to discuss the reasons for the
severance, but I may say with certainty that
Mr. Rose will continue in the piano trade and
his moves are worth watching.
* * * *
The displays made by London piano manufac-
turers at the Franco-British Exhibition at Shep-
ard's Bush are hardly representative of a city
that boasts of over a hundred piano manufac-
turers. As a matter of fact, only four concerns
are in evidence: Messrs. Joseph Wallis & Son,
Messrs. Boyd, Ltd., Philip Cohen & Co., Ltd.,
while the Willis Music Co., publishers, display a
"Musicus-" player-piano; Lachenal & Co. and
Wheatstone show concertinas and Rudell Carte
& Co. display band instruments. The absence
of prominent piano manufacturers has caused
comment. Canada makes a fine showing, some
seven piano and three organ manufacturers being
represented, viz.: Gerhard Heinzman, Ltd., To-
ronto; Martin Orme, Ottawa; Leach Piano Co.,
Montreal; Williams Piano Co., Oshawa; Nord-
heimer Piano & Organ Co., Toronto, who
display pianos and player-pianos in various
styles. The Bell Co., D. W. Karn Co., and
Thomas Organ Co. are in evidence with organs
of various designs. Beale & Co., of Sydney, the
only piano house in the commonwealth, represent
Australia, while Prance has five firms exhibiting
pianos and seven firms representing small mu-
sical instruments in the French section of the
Decorative Art building. In the Machinery Hall,
John Barker & Co., Ltd., are showing two Steln-
way pianos (grand and upright) in a handsome
suite of rooms. The talking machine industry is
represented by the Gramophone Co. and Pathe
Fr&res.
* • • •
The Maharajah of Nepal, who is enjoying the
London season, has purchased sixteen gramo-
phones, ranging in price from £125. The piano
manufacturer should get acquainted at once with
the Maharajah.
* « * *
The Perforated Music Co., Ltd., has been regis-
tered with a capital of £40,000 in 25,000 prefer-
ence and 14,500 ordinary shares of £ 1 each, and
10,000 shares of Is. each. . Objects—To acquire
the business carried on by A. D. Klaber as the
Perforated Music Co., and to carry on the busi-
ness of manufacturers of and dealers in musical
instruments, perforated and other music, etc.
There was no initial public issue.
* * * *
According to a recent dispatch from Paris,
printed in the local newspapers, the path of the
Parisian piano dealer is far from being one of
roses. The dispatch reads as follows: "A case
which has a measurable interest for those
in the music trade has just been settled in
favor of Baron de Chabaud-Latour, who lives in
the Rue la Boetie. Next door to the baron's
mansion there is a piano salesroom, to which has
recently been added a daily free concert on sev-
eral pianos. The baron went to law about the
matter on the ground that the noise he was
obliged to listen to was an infraction of his
rights to such an extent as to entitle him to pro-
cure an injunction against the music people and
compensation for the injury his nerves had suf-
fered.
"According to the baron's counsel, the vocal
and instrumental noises coming from the piano
dealer's premises were such that, by their na-
ture, their repetition and the condition in which
they were produced, they ended by becoming in-
supportable for the occupants of adjoining prop-
erty. Therefore, the Baron de Chabaud-Latour
asked tho tribunal, independently of a sum of
$1,000 compensation, to direct that the noises
complained of should be attenuated and deafened
by the employment of certain dispositions.
"After laying down the principle that every
proprietor is at liberty to make what use he
pleases of his property so long as he does not
interfere with the rights of other parties—who
also have the right to make use of their prop-
erty without suffering inconvenience through the
abusive employment which their neighbors may
make of their property—the judges appointed an
architect to carry out, at the expense of the
piano dealer, all alterations necessary to obtain
a cessation of the vocal and instrumental noises
complained of, and a t the same time they ac-
corded to the Baron de Chabaud-Latour the sum
of $100 as compensation."
* * * *
The Musical Instrument Trade Protection As-
sociation, Ltd., as announced in a previous let-
ter, determined at their last meeting to change
the name of the organization to the Pianoforte
Manufacturers' Association, Ltd. This move was
undertaken to make clear the purpose of the
association as revealed in its title, inasmuch
as it is an association composed of piano manu-
facturers, while the organization under its old
title was much broader in its scope.
There seems to be much dissatisfaction on the
part of some of the members at the change,
particularly those gentlemen who are connected
with the supply and other branches of the in-
dustry. Not a few members of the trade here
believe that this move will shut out from the
councils of the organization many men of im-
portance and prestige who were active in the
old organization. The officers and council as
officially promulgated are as follows: Presi-
dent, George D. Rose, Esq., John Broadwood &
Sons, Ltd.; vice-presidents, Charles H. Challen,
Esq., John C. Collard, Esq., and Ernest J. Moore,
Esq.; treasurer, Justin Browne, Esq.; Louis
Bamberger, Esq., C.C.; Henry Billinghurst, Esq.,
John Brinsmead & Sons, Ltd.; Walter C. Byers,
Esq.; Frank Challen, Esq., J. & J. Hopkinson,
Ltd.; Thomas Harper, Esq.; James Hillier, Esq.,
Hillier Organ and Piano Co.; J. A. Murdoch,
Esq., Arthur Allison & Co.; Nelson Samuel, Esq.,
Barnett, Samuel & Sons, Ltd.; T. Shipman, Esq.,
Shipman & Shipman; Albert Squire, Esq., Squire
& Longson; Frank Squire, Esq., B. Squire & Son;
H. E. H. Standish, Esq., Joseph Wallis & Son,
Ltd.; R. F. Stevens, Esq.; J. White, Esq., Broad-
wood, White & Co.; John Wood, Esq., J. B.
Cramer & Co., Ltd.; honorable accountant, Percy
Mason, Esq.; honorable solicitor, Walter Mas-
kell, Esq.; honorable secretary, James Hillier;
bankers, London and County Bank, Ltd., 109-111
New Oxford street, W. C ; offices, 64 Gresham
street, E. C.
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