Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SPILLANE, Managing Editor
Executive and Reportorlal Stall:
B. BiiTTAiN WILSON,
A. J. NiCKLiN,
''ARLETON CHACK,
AUGUST J. TIMP«,
L. M. ROBINSON,
W K . B. WHITE,
GLAD HENDERSON,
L. E. BOWKKS.
BOSTON OFFICE
CHICAGO OFFICE:
roMN H. WILSON. 1*4 Washington St.
£ P. VAN HARLINGEN Consumers' Building.
_ , , ' , . _»,«
820 So. State Street. Telephone, Wabash 5774.
Telephone, Main 8950.
HENEY S. KINGWILL, Associate,
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., E. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered at the New York Post Office as Second Class Matter.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year; Canada,
$8.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS, $3.50 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts, a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages $110.00.
REMITTANCES, In other tfcan currency forms, should be made payable to Eflward
Lyman Bill.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
technical nature relating to the tuning, regu-
lating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos are
B
B
d e a U w i t h > w f n b e f o u n s i n an< >ther s«tion of this
paper. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning which
will be cheerfully given upon request.
PlflVPP
1 lOJCl Pinnn
1 lauv Anil
auu
t j o n s o{ a
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Diploma
Paris Exposition, 1000
Silver Medal.. .Charleston Exposition, 1001
Pan-American Exposition, 1001
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1004
Gold Medml..Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1005
&OJTO DIBTA1TCX TZLZFHOVE8—NU1SBZBS 5983—5983 KADIS OH BQ.
Connecting all Departments
Cable address: "EIDIU, Hew York."
NEW Y O R K ,
FEBRUARY
6, 1 9 1 5
EDITORIAL
O
NE piano man said recently: "It is a wise man who, under
the new Federal Special Tax Law, knows when and how to
pay his taxes without either cheating himself or the Government,
and it will probably be found that in a majority of cases it will be
the individual and not the Government who will be the loser." At a
gathering of piano merchants in New York recently the question
of attaching stamps to piano sales contracts was brought up and it
developed that hardly any two of the score of dealers present had
the same idea regarding their tax liabilities or followed the same
procedure in attaching the tax stamps.
This condition was due largely to the fact that each State has its
own laws, and the piano houses of each State have a variety of rules,
covering the handling of instalment paper. In some States instal-
ment leases are not recorded and the piano men do not attach stamps
thereto. In other States they take the form of chattel mortgages
and are recorded according to law, with a consequent tax charge.
In still other cases a series of notes are accepted to cover the sale,
and these are subject to a stamp tax. In view of the uncertainty
regarding the tax, in the minds of many piano merchants, it would
probably pay the secretary of the National Association of Piano
Merchants to secure an official ruling from the proper authorities
at Washington covering all of the varied forms of piano instalment
contracts. Being a Federal tax such a ruling would apply in every
State of the Union.
At the present time in some States piano dealers are taxed for
pianos sold on instalment on the claim that they still hold title to
the instrument while the purchasers are taxed for the same instru-
ments on the claim that they are in possession of the piano. With
these local trials and tribulations to face the piano merchant should
at least be sure of where he stands under a tax law that is nation
wide in scope. It might be well, too, for the individual dealer to
get an opinion from the local Federal authorities in his district as to
his actual obligations under the law. If it does not actually save
him money in stamps such a ruling will very probably save him
from penalties for violation.
W
ITHOUT doubt one of the greatest single exhibitions of
art pianos ever made in the piano trade is the display of
instruments and special cases, originally designed for non-competi-
tive exhibition in various State buildings at the Panama-Pacific
Exposition and in its San Francisco store, made by the Baldwin
Piano Co., Cincinnati, O. Nineteen distinct and original examples
of piano case treatment, eleven of them grands, go to make up the
collection that is estimated to be worth more than $40,000. Such
work is of distinct value to the piano trade, and the I'aldwin Co. is
entitled to unstinted praise, not only for this exhibition of p'ano
craftsmanship, but for the spirit that made this display possible.
As the instruments are to be exhibited on a non-competitive
basis, the Baldwin Co. will be denied the series of awards that would
undoubtedly come to them under competitive conditions, and must
depend for its reward on the prestige that will be gained by the
Baldwin name. In no collection of a similar number of instru-
ments has there been shown such a variety of recognized decorative
styles, or such versatility in applying the style to the more or less
severe lines of the piano case. This is particularly noticeable in the
treatment of several grands along the lines laid down by Chippen-
dale, whose skill in the adaptation of the Chinese art in cabinet
work has never been surpassed. In these Chinese Chippendale mod-
els the Oriental spirit has been preserved in every detail of the case,
with a result that is hard to realize, but easy to appreciate. Not
only are the designs of the cases strictly in accordance with the
Chippendale school, but the finish in Chinese lacquer and gold leaves
nothing to be desired. More complete harmony in piano case deco-
ration would be hard to achieve.
In the Baldwin collection there are reproduced also the styles
of the Adam Bros., Sheraton, Hepplewhite and other masters of
decoration, whose art and cabinet work will stand as models for
generations to come. The use of Rockwood and Wedgwood pot-
tery was resorted to, and mirror panels and plain glass panels,
backed by brocade, used with complete success. There have been
art pianos made by leading American manufacturers, and it is safe
to say that in this particular the craftsmanship of Americans has
led the world, but in the production of nineteen new and original
art models, however, the Baldwin Co. sets a new standard for the
trade, a standard that indicates pride in its work rather than mer-
cenary desires. Tt is to be hoped that the appreciation for its
work will pay the Baldwin Co. in part for the progressiveness and
liberality it has shown.
S
OME interesting observations on the development of piano
trade with Australia are set forth in the interview with Fred
Sutton, of Sutton's Proprietary, Ltd., of Melbourne, which appears
elsewhere in this issue of The Review.
After a lengthy stay in the United States he pays a high tribute
to the American piano and to the methods of manufacturing in this
country. He points out that there is a market for the American
instrument in his country, provided the manufacturers conform
more particularly to the case designs that are in demand in Aus-
tralia, and says that necessarily price is a consideration in view of
the Australian high tariff duty of 40 per cent, on pianos and the
fact that Great Britain is given a preferential tariff of 10 per cent,
on exports.
He analyzes labor conditions in Germany and America, and
says that the greater use of mechanical devices in this country in a
measure offsets the lower cost of labor in Germany. He sees no
reason why American piano manufacturers should not be able to
take the better of the cheaper German pianos as a pattern and espe-
cially equip their factories to turn out a product that will be a
strong competitor of the German instrument in Australia and South
America.
The article is not only timely, but expresses the views of a
practical piano man of many long years of experience in all depart-
ments of the piano business in the Antipodes, and it should be read
more than once by manufacturers who are interested in the develop-
ment of foreign trade.
HPHOSF piano merchants and salesmen who once in a while get
A despondent and consider that the piano buying community
is declining instead of increasing should take heart for at 4 p. m.,
April 2, the population of the United States will have reached and
passed the hundred-million mark, according 1o C. D. Sloane, geog-
rapher of the Census Bureau, who estimates the population at that
hour will be 100,000,059. J. S. McCoy, actuary of the Treasury