Music Trade Review

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THE MUSICAL CRITIC AND TRADE REVIEW.
November 2oth, iSSt.
CO
VOL.
NEW YDKK, NOVEMBER 20TH TO DECEMBER 5TH, 1881.
y.
The man w h o does not advertise has it
A picture of the interior of the room occupied
done tor h i m finally under t h e head of by the
EMERSON PIANO COMPANY
** failures in business."
at the New England Fair is presented on another
page. The room was tastefully furnished and
was crowded daily by visitors. There was a general
THE ULMANN PATENT MUDDLE.
expression of admiration at the very tasteful ex-
N the contest over the Ulmann Patent, between hibit made by this enterprising firm. Emerson &
Co. were in particularly good humor over their
A. Hammacher & Co., of New York, and Mr. recent sales. According to Mr. Patrick Powers,
Wilson, of Boston, there seems to be some myster- treasurer of the company, for the week ending
November 5th the firm shipped eighty pianos.
ious force at work that prevents these gentlemen The Michigan trade, he said, was good notwith-
from meeting and settling their differences. standing the recent fires. The effect of this dis-
aster had been only local and had not affected the
Ulmann has been trying to collect royalties of general business of the State. The firm had all
Wilson for a year past and Wilson has been trying the orders it had expected to fill in Michigan and
were really not at all affected by the fires. Mr.
to find Ulmann to pay them off, but neither can Powers thought there was no cause for fear in re-
find the other. This is evidently a Chinese puzzle gard to the outlook for the general business
interests of the country as its present condi-
that only the courts can solve. This step Ham- tion was so satisfactory. The only cause for
apprehension perhaps lay in the possibility
macher & Co. have decided to take.
of prominent capitalists speculating heavily
and in case of disaster dragging down many in-
nocent people in their ruin as was the case with
Jay Cooke in 1873 and the Ohio Life and Trust
Company in 1857. There was no danger of such
a disaster happening in Boston as there were
GREAT ACTIVITY AMONG THE PIANO AND not such great financial concerns there as in New
York, but if Vanderbilt, Gould and Keene should
ORGAN MANUFACTURERS.
get at swords' points with each other and a great
financial crash should ensue, in such an event the
VISITS BY OUR BOSTON REPORTER AND WHAT H E present prosperity of Boston trade would be like-
LEARNED.—EFFECT OF THE BOSTON FAIRS
ly to be interrupted.
I
BOSTON TRADE.
ON THE MUSICAL TRADE.
UR representative called recently upon a
number of Boston manufacturers of musical
instruments and learned that the Boston trade in
this line of manufacture was unusually good. Or-
ders are coming in at a lively rate and some diffi-
culty is frequently experienced in filling them im-
mediately. This pleasant state of affairs is gene-
ral with perhaps some slight dissatisfaction among
the smaller dealers who could make more money
if they received more orders.
Dropping into Loring's Library our represen-
tative naturally inquired after THE MUSICAL CRITIC
O
AND TRADE REVIEW.
Our representative was informed that the Emer-
son Piano Company had just taken a three years'
lease of their present building on Washington St.,
to date from next January. They have already be
gun to make alterations in their warerooms, and in
fact will have the entire building thoroughly repair-
ed. They intend to have a new front, new floors and
new ceilings put in. Mr. Powers alluded with par-
donable pride to the sucqess the company had made.
When Col. Moore sold the business out to the pres-
ent company the average weekly production was
about twenty pianos, but with the present concern
it will be probably in the neighborhood of nearly
three times the amount.
Loring is the Brentano of
Boston at whose place people of wealth and leisure
find an endless assortment of home and foreign
periodicals. Mr. Loring replied to our inquiry
that he could not begin to meet the demand for
the paper and that it would be necessary to large-
ly increase his weekly supply.
Boston is preeminently the centre of the organ
trade. There are no factories for reed organs in
New York; there is a number in Boston. Through-
out New England there are many factories for the
manufacture of organs and pianos, but the bulk
of these instruments distributed make a central
point of Boston.
The New England and Mechanics' Fairs which
have been held in Boston during the past three
months have brought thousands of people into the
city. This has undoubtedly been a fortunate thing
from a financial point of view. These visitors
have seen in a small compass some of the best pro-
ducts of the city without the trouble of wander-
ing through main throughfares to obtain the same
information. The majority of the visitors, too,
have been of the moneyed class and have not been
afraid to dispose of their cash whenever they came
across a good article. The fairs were to have closed
(Saturday last and by this time the exhibitors have
removed their goods. The musical trade has ex-
perienced considerable benefit from this influx of
visitors to the city and can show a considerable
addition to its bank account in consequence.
In thia connection the World's Fair project may
be appropriately mentioned. The sum of $5,000,-
000 still remains to be raised and active efforts are
being made in that direction. The Musical Com-
mittee appointed consists of George H. Chicker-
ing, Isaac Woodward, Henry F. Miller and Goorge
M. Guild.
BUSINESS WITH THE SMITH AMERICAN ORGAN
COMPANY.
R. S. D. SMITH and Mr. Underwood of the
Smith American Organ Company were in
glorious good humor when our Boston representa-
tive called on them. They stated that they had sent
to Melbourne, Australia, in thirty days 200 organs
and that they could sit down comfortably now-
a-days and pay no attention to any business ex-
cept that of their four branch-houses in this coun-
try and their Australian trade. They weie also
selling a large number of the Smith American Or-
gan Company's instruments and were working
their machinery department until nine o'clock
every night.
Mr. Smith also pleasantly alluded to the fact
that they had come out ahead in the suit brought
against them nine years ago in the matter of ad-
vertising at the great Peace Jubilee at Boston. It
seemed that advertising facilities were promised
to certain parties alone on the condition that they
would advertise and that facilities were afterward
granted to other parties than those to whom they
were exclusively granted. Some of the original
contracting parties, among whom was the Smith
American Organ Company, refused to settle the
claims against them for advertising on the ground
that faith with them had not been kept. There-
fore, they were sued by the parties representing
the advertising management of the Peace Jubilee,
namely, Messrs. Mason & Hamlin, Hallett & Davis
and Oliver Ditson.
M
No. 8.
BOSTON TRADE CHAT.
Just as we are going to press we learn that a
strike was threatened among the workmen at Mr.
Henry F. Miller's factory.
Guild, Church & Company's case factory was
destroyed by fire on the night of Nov. 10. The
lower floor was stored with machinery, lumber and
boards, which were damaged to the amount of
$700. The fire and water damaged their apart-
ments in which Avere nearly 200 rosewood piano
cases, valuable machinery and material, to the
amount of $12,000. The firm has an insurance for
$12,000 in Boston and New York companies. The
business will suffer no delay. The contents of the
second floor, which was occupied by Wood
Brothers, manufacturers of piano keys, were
damaged to the amount of $450. His loss is
covered by insurance in the Queen Insurance
Company.
Mr. William Monroe, President of the Monroe
Organ Reed Company, of Worcester, Mass., was
met in Washington street recently with Mr. John
Given of the Automatic Musical Paper Company.
Mr. Darling, composer of " The Twelve Jolly
Bachelors," is a nephew of Mr. George M. Guild,
the well-known piauo maker of Boston. He is
gifted with remarkable musical talent.
Mr. J. Estey, of the Estey Organ Company,
Bmttleboro', Vt., visited Boston recently to look
after the firm's branch house in that city, and Mr.
Hawley, Estey & Company's bookkeeper, was also
in town.
Mr. Millikin, of Haines Bros., Avas among the
recent visitors to Boston.
John F. Perry & Co., of this city, have added a
large amount of elegant stationery to their stock
and seem to be paying quite as much attention to
that line of trade as to their publishing business.
Mr. W. W. Kimball, of Chicago, has been in
Boston as well as New York recently clamoring
for more pianos. He says lie wanted the Emer-
son Piano Company to send him one hundred
squares a month and all the uprights they could
possibly let him have. He says trade in Chicago
is first-rate.
Messrs. C. C. Briggs & Co.', of Boston, who
were recently burned out, state they will soon be
in their old quarters and are now ready to receive
orders.
The New England Organ Company have brought
out lately some new styles of organs which are
meeting with great favor among agents. This
concern has just sold one of their large cathedral
organs to a party in Montreal. They have brought
out a new style of their popular student's organ and
have improved their patent extension music desk.
Retail business with Messrs. Vose & Sons, the
piano manufacturers, is constantly growing larger.
They have been averaging two pianos a day in ad-
dition to their large wholesale trade. They have
so arranged their business, they state, that their
sales are all made on a strictly cash basis. Their
largest customer pays within fifteen days for all
the goods shipped to him within that time and
their next largest customer is paying in advance.
They have been doing business in this way for
five years without losing a piano. They have just
brought out a powerful toned upright.
Charles D. Blake has control of the musical
instrument department of tho firm of White,
Smith & Co. This music publishing firm have
become piano dealers in consequence of the
many requests they have received from their cus-
tomers to buy pianos for them.
Little progress has been made in the trial of the
patent suit of George Steck against the Emerson
The wife of Mr. Lowell Mason, of the Mason & Piano Company. The suit is brought for infringe-
Hamlin organ company, died recentlv at Orange, ment of patent and the plaintiff's case has not yet
been fully presented.
N. J.