Presto

P R E S T 0-T I M E S
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
Editor
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
- - - - - - - - -
(C. A. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _ Managing Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
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space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen in the
smaller cities are the best occasional correspondents, and
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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1927.
ART IN PIANO DESIGNS
As a rule the piano customer today is keenly
interested in the outward form of his piano
purchase, as well as its merits of construction.
The name of the manufacturer assures him of
the desired tonal qualities and the character
for endurance in the piano he considers most
desirable, but it depends upon himself to add
to these his ideal of case beauty. And never
before have the refinements and elegancies of
art entered so much into the construction of
pianos.
Nearly every piano manufacturer now in-
cludes period designs in his line. Some of the
makers are distinguished by the extent of their
period models and truth to types is pointed out
as a feature to be proud of. The selection of
the forms involved keen study of the furniture
of the various periods, the services of the best
designers and the most expert carvers.
The result is that the piano customer of dis-
criminating taste in the furnishing of a house
finds every phase of period history represented
in the fine piano warerooms.
The piano manufacturers who feature the
period models among their lines really have
much to thank the furniture manufacturers for
in increased interest of the public in period
models and the ability to differentiate between
one and the other. And the dealers and sales-
men in the music trade are in consequence
familiar with the peculiarities of the various
periods and are more effectively equipped to
meet customers possessed of the knowledge
of period types and to instruct those who ?.re
not versed in the beautiful forms.
The turn towards perfection in period types
in furniture suggests a consideration of the
progress observed in the furniture industry.
It is not so very long ago that the designer of
furniture was a law unto himself. In too many
instances he was lawless from the artistic
point of view.
furniture were continued from year to year.
The first jolt to their equanimity came when
the furniture industry formed trade associa-
tions and met annually to compare notes. When
inspired speakers impressed the necessity for
a closer association with art in furniture mak-
ing, they were considered unpractically "high-
brow" by the unprogressive ones. Then fol-
lowed the separation of the regenerated from
the mossbacks in the furniture industry. The
transition of the furniture field within a few
decades has been indicative of the ambition to
walk, step by step, with the growth of artistic
taste. Beauty and quality took the place of
price as incentives in manufacturing. Educa-
tion of the furniture buyer became a more im-
portant part in selling methods and, thanks to
the effectiveness of the furniture makers'
propaganda, the piano buyer has a greater ap-
preciation of the beautiful and artistic in piano
design.
The true and artistic period designs elevate
the tone of the piano but the makeshifts for
period designs are really detrimental. The
plan to simplify production is too often sub-
servient to artistic ambition. Giving a piano
the mere semblance to a period model is fall-
ing short of a purpose. Producing a period de-
sign is something more than adding fancy legs
and carved curlicues to an original model of
the Calvin Coolidge era. Piano dealers may
help the piano promotion plan by encouraging
the purchase of the artistic models put forth
by the ambitious piano manufacturers.
GUARDING A REPUTATION
Eternal vigilance is the price of reputation.
The words paraphrase a sacred epigram, but
no offense to its originator is meant. Take a
reputation for making good pianos or selling
them, for instance. Once secured, reputation
must be safeguarded so that it does not steal
away.
Just as soon as the maker of the reputable
piano sits down in supreme contemplation of
the fruits of his efforts, just so soon is he in
danger of losing that elusive thing, reputation.
Just as soon as the dealer with the reputation
for honest and efficient service lies back in
hookwormy ease and loses pride in the char-
acter he has achieved, just so soon will his
reputation start growing wings for ultimate
flight.
With many men in the piano trade reputa-
tion was the chief asset at the start. They
vigilantly safeguarded it even after they ac-
quired the more tangible assets shown on
books and computed in the casting up of an-
nual statements. Their reputation was an in-
December 31, 1927
tangible thing. They did not buy it nor could
they sell it or ever pass it by succession so it
would stay put. But they fully recognized its
value and its importance in gaining and keep-
ing the other and tangible asset.
It is the very intangibility; the great illu-
siveness of reputation that makes men so
vigilant in keeping it. Reputation is so per-
sonal in its nature that neither he who sells nor
he who buys or succeeds to it can be assured
that it will remain a part of the business that
has held it hitherto.
The piano trade is full of instances that
show the vanisHing quality of reputation.
Piano titles, firm names, factory names are
there in plenty that have not the same sig-
nificance they once possessed. Somebody has
said that reputation in manufacturing was the
influence of a particular mind upon work. He
talked wisely, whoever he was. He might have
added that reputation was also the reciprocal
influence of work upon mind.
Anybody familiar with the history of the
piano trade can conjure up pianos and piano
houses the reputations of which depended upon
certain reputation-creating qualities in the
men creating them. The sad thing about it is
calling to mind the fact that the reputations
in many instances exhibited their character
for illusiveness and flew.
The heading to a feature in this issue reads,
"Try This on Your Memory." It is an oppor-
tunity for the men whose memories go back
to an interesting and comparatively remote
trade convention and recalls the persons and
incidents that helped make it worth remem-
bering. As originally set up the text with the
picture offered a year's subscription to Presto-
Times to those naming the occupants of the
automobile, the city where the convention was
held and the place where the photograph was
taken. Owing to post office regulations which
preserves our morals, the guessing proposition
had to be deleted. You can send in your guess,
but blame the post office department for for-
bidding the reward proposition.
* * *
An advantage enjoyed by the music dealers
of Baltimore, Md., is due to the pleasant fact
that sixty-two per cent of the people living in
homes are owners. It is an interesting cir-
cumstance pointed out by the Presto-Times
correspondent there and which, he says, is ac-
countable for the satisfactory holiday busi-
ness. No insistent house-owner or his agent
grabs the equivalent of a first piano payment
from the happy piano prospect who owns his
own home.
Greeting!
:PreSto=Ql4meS extents its toisljes for a fjappp anb prosperous*
J e a r to tije iftlusic Crabe in all its pfjases.
3t is> an opportunity for tfje paper to express its appreciation of tfte
abbertising enterprise of tfje manufacturers tofro fjabe Jjelpeb to sustain
it ant> to boice its goob toisijes for tfje reabers bp tofjose encouragement
tlje American ifflusic Crabe PJeefelp fjas groton in influence tljrougf)
fortp=tfjree pears.
But, as the general run of furniture makers
were indifferent to the growing artistic taste
of the people, the old, nondescript numbers in
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