Music Trade Review
Issue: 1891 Vol. N. A - Page 1
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VOL. XV. No. i.
NEW YORK, AUGUST 5 TO 20, 1891
CHICAGO.
A MORE PROMISING STATE OF T R A D E — T H E MANUFAC-
TURERS' r i A N O CO.—A GOOD SHOWING—STEGER &
CO.'S
FINE
QUARTERS—IMMENSE
OPERATIONS
OF LYON & H E A L Y — T H E W . W . KIMBALL
CO.'S
EXTENSIONS—TRADE
PERSON-
ALS, ETC.
CHICAGO, July 31, 1891.
Editors Music TRAbE REVIEW :
To marty unfamiliar with the vagaries of Chicago
trade it may seem like " midsummer madness" to say
that business is fairly good and that dealers are in great
good humor. Yet things in general are going very
smoothly for our friends in the trade, and a grumpy in-
dividual is the exception. July has been an exception-
ally good month for all, and 1 now hear very little
detrimental to the fair reputation of the McKinley Bill,
derogatory to our winter visitor, la grippe, or condemn-
atory of characteristic Chicago weather. To the en-
thusiast in the pursuit of business there is little incen-
tive to go abroad to recuperate, for we have every
concomitant of health, comfort and pleasure right
with us,
I have rarely found such a good state of feeling ex-
tant in the middle-year season as is now everywhere
apparent.
To-day completes the first year's business of The
Manufacturers' Piano Company, of Chicago, which, it is
generally understood, has been an extraordinarily suc-
cessful ohe. The annual meeting of the stockholders
and directors is to be held Tuesday, August, n t h , and
directors William Foster, the trustee of the Weber
estate, and Wm. E. Wheelock, John W. Mason and
Charles 13. Lawson, of the Wheelock, Stuyvesant and
Lindeman houses, are expected to be present from New
York. During the first year of its organization The
Manufacturers' Piano Company has established agen-
cies for the sale of its instruments in most of the prin-
cipal cities and towns of the West, and it is safe to say
that in the course of another twelve months the field
will be thoroughly occupied. The construction of the
warerooms, salesrooms and offices has been so changed
as to give more light, space and convenience, and work
is now easier alike for employees and customers. All
parties interested are clearly satisfied with the present
status of affairs.
Messrs. Steger & Co., since they have moved over
from State street to Wabash avenue, have just been
making things lively, not only for the trade but for
themselves and friends. Their selection of a location
bids fair to prove a happy one in every respect. They
are on the main drive thoroughfare from the grand
Michigan Boulevard to the West Side, where live two-
thirds of Chicago's population of over a million people,
and midway between the former and State street, the
great retail street of the World's Fair city. In addi-
tion to having an eligible corner they have a house that
is in itself a gem for the piano business. The show
windows, fronting on two streets, are artistically ar-
ranged, while the first floor show room, with its display
of Sohmer and Steger pianos, is the admiration of all
those who call, and they are legion. But the very acme
of taking display is reached on the second floor, where
costly draperies and art objects in sculpture and paint-
ing, from the elevator shaft to every imaginable nook
and cranny, combine, with the beautifnlly carved and
polished instruments to make the place a very bower of
beauty and attractiveness,
Mr. Steger made an advantageous lease of the whole
building, reserved the best part of it for his own uses,
and sublet the remainder. As he has it fixed his ship-
ping is all done from an alley in the rear, and his cus-
tomers never see or know how or where the hourly
shipments and receipts go and come.
It would surprise many people, not only abroad but
here, to know the amount of business now being done by
the music trade of Chicago. The total business done by
the Lyon & Healy Co. alone in 1890 aggregated $2,000,-
000. 564 people were engaged in handling this immense
business, which is all done by departments, each having
its particular chief, but all under one general head. In
pianos their trade is confined to America, but in organs
they circle the globe. Half a hundred men are engaged
in the piano department, and the value of stock therein
foots up nearly 150,000. The firm have a factory on the
West Side, where they manufacture harps, guitars,
violins, zithers, mandolins, organs, &c, &c. In the
small-musical-instrument department examples of the
achievements of the best musical mechanics in the Old
World are always to be found. The music and book
department and business offices are on the first floor.
The house of Lyon & Healy is voted to be one of the
most complete musical establishments to be found any-
where. Their business is constantly on the increase.
In Knabe pianos alone the sales for July were 175 per
cent, over those of the same month in 1890.
John W. Northrup, salesman for the Kimball Com-
pany, is still on the sick list. His confrere, E. S. Smith,
is on a well-earned vacation.
Mr. Cheney, of The Comstock Cheney & Co., of Ivory-
ton, Conn., the well known key makers ; Mr. M. J. Chase,
of the Chickering-Chase concern, Muskegon, and C. C.
Colby, of the Colby Piano Co., of Erie, Pa., were here
this week. Mr. Colby, while here, completed arrange-
ments for opening his new branch house in the World's
Fair City.
The Kimball Company are still in the front rank in
all that pertains to the music trade. They are now
making a great specialty of small pipe organs, in the
manufacture of which they are excelling. Although
their warerooms seemed large enough for almost any
state of trade they have bad to curtail desk room to
accommodate their display room. The retail trade of the
firm foots up over $30,000 more than for the same month
last year, and while the wholesale does not make quite
so good a showing it is yet very encouraging. Alto-
gether the house is congratulating itself on the change
from State street to Wabash avenue. The large music
hall in their new place is almost constantly engaged,
and the music studios are all taken for the coming year.
Mr. A. G. Cone, of the firm, is back from an extensive
summer outing and has settled down to business.
Mr. E. S. Conway is off with his family on a trip to
the Yellowstone Park, while Mr. Kimball himself is
enjoying a sojourn with his family at Geneva Lake.
Yours, &c,
Banjo, No. 456,029, F. Gretsch.
Musical instrument, No. 456,027, G. A. Ernst.
Piano pedal, No. 456,088, J. V. Goodman.
Music stand, case and portfolio, No. 456 433, S. C.
Rue.
BANJO.—Frederick Gretsch, Brooklyn, N. Y. This
invention provides a means whereby the brackets usu-
ally employed on a banjo head may be dispensed with
and the neck may be secured to the head in such a
manner as not to weaken but to strengthen the head,
with the object of lessening the cost and improving the
quality of the tone. A sounding plate with a central
opening constitutes the bottom of the head, to the
under surface of which the neck is secured, while a
clamping band encircles the body band, resting on the
sounding plate, the clips engaging the clamping band
being passed through the sounding plate and being pro-
vided with adjusting or locking devices.—Siietttific
American.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
CUSTOM H O U S E , BOSTON. MASS ,
\
Exportations of Musical Instruments for the month
of June, 1891.
To Germany.
Twelve (12) pianos
$3,000
-
To England:
One hundred and seventy-four (174) organs. $10,250
2,207
All other and parts of
Total,
-
-
-
-
$12,457
To Nova Scotia.
Three (3) pianos
All other and parts of -
Total
75o
256
$ 1,00b
To Newfoundland.
Five (5) organs
$980
To Br. West Indies.
One (1) organ
$125
Combined total,
$17,568
Importations of Musical Instruments into the Port of
Boston during the month of June, 1891:
I. A. FLEMING.
POLLOCK & Co., N . Y . , are moving ahead. Their
pianos are attracting attention In many quarters,
)
Collector's Office, June 16, 189L
Countries
France
Germa n y . 5
Value.
$4,847
VOL. XV. No. i.
NEW YORK, AUGUST 5 TO 20, 1891
CHICAGO.
A MORE PROMISING STATE OF T R A D E — T H E MANUFAC-
TURERS' r i A N O CO.—A GOOD SHOWING—STEGER &
CO.'S
FINE
QUARTERS—IMMENSE
OPERATIONS
OF LYON & H E A L Y — T H E W . W . KIMBALL
CO.'S
EXTENSIONS—TRADE
PERSON-
ALS, ETC.
CHICAGO, July 31, 1891.
Editors Music TRAbE REVIEW :
To marty unfamiliar with the vagaries of Chicago
trade it may seem like " midsummer madness" to say
that business is fairly good and that dealers are in great
good humor. Yet things in general are going very
smoothly for our friends in the trade, and a grumpy in-
dividual is the exception. July has been an exception-
ally good month for all, and 1 now hear very little
detrimental to the fair reputation of the McKinley Bill,
derogatory to our winter visitor, la grippe, or condemn-
atory of characteristic Chicago weather. To the en-
thusiast in the pursuit of business there is little incen-
tive to go abroad to recuperate, for we have every
concomitant of health, comfort and pleasure right
with us,
I have rarely found such a good state of feeling ex-
tant in the middle-year season as is now everywhere
apparent.
To-day completes the first year's business of The
Manufacturers' Piano Company, of Chicago, which, it is
generally understood, has been an extraordinarily suc-
cessful ohe. The annual meeting of the stockholders
and directors is to be held Tuesday, August, n t h , and
directors William Foster, the trustee of the Weber
estate, and Wm. E. Wheelock, John W. Mason and
Charles 13. Lawson, of the Wheelock, Stuyvesant and
Lindeman houses, are expected to be present from New
York. During the first year of its organization The
Manufacturers' Piano Company has established agen-
cies for the sale of its instruments in most of the prin-
cipal cities and towns of the West, and it is safe to say
that in the course of another twelve months the field
will be thoroughly occupied. The construction of the
warerooms, salesrooms and offices has been so changed
as to give more light, space and convenience, and work
is now easier alike for employees and customers. All
parties interested are clearly satisfied with the present
status of affairs.
Messrs. Steger & Co., since they have moved over
from State street to Wabash avenue, have just been
making things lively, not only for the trade but for
themselves and friends. Their selection of a location
bids fair to prove a happy one in every respect. They
are on the main drive thoroughfare from the grand
Michigan Boulevard to the West Side, where live two-
thirds of Chicago's population of over a million people,
and midway between the former and State street, the
great retail street of the World's Fair city. In addi-
tion to having an eligible corner they have a house that
is in itself a gem for the piano business. The show
windows, fronting on two streets, are artistically ar-
ranged, while the first floor show room, with its display
of Sohmer and Steger pianos, is the admiration of all
those who call, and they are legion. But the very acme
of taking display is reached on the second floor, where
costly draperies and art objects in sculpture and paint-
ing, from the elevator shaft to every imaginable nook
and cranny, combine, with the beautifnlly carved and
polished instruments to make the place a very bower of
beauty and attractiveness,
Mr. Steger made an advantageous lease of the whole
building, reserved the best part of it for his own uses,
and sublet the remainder. As he has it fixed his ship-
ping is all done from an alley in the rear, and his cus-
tomers never see or know how or where the hourly
shipments and receipts go and come.
It would surprise many people, not only abroad but
here, to know the amount of business now being done by
the music trade of Chicago. The total business done by
the Lyon & Healy Co. alone in 1890 aggregated $2,000,-
000. 564 people were engaged in handling this immense
business, which is all done by departments, each having
its particular chief, but all under one general head. In
pianos their trade is confined to America, but in organs
they circle the globe. Half a hundred men are engaged
in the piano department, and the value of stock therein
foots up nearly 150,000. The firm have a factory on the
West Side, where they manufacture harps, guitars,
violins, zithers, mandolins, organs, &c, &c. In the
small-musical-instrument department examples of the
achievements of the best musical mechanics in the Old
World are always to be found. The music and book
department and business offices are on the first floor.
The house of Lyon & Healy is voted to be one of the
most complete musical establishments to be found any-
where. Their business is constantly on the increase.
In Knabe pianos alone the sales for July were 175 per
cent, over those of the same month in 1890.
John W. Northrup, salesman for the Kimball Com-
pany, is still on the sick list. His confrere, E. S. Smith,
is on a well-earned vacation.
Mr. Cheney, of The Comstock Cheney & Co., of Ivory-
ton, Conn., the well known key makers ; Mr. M. J. Chase,
of the Chickering-Chase concern, Muskegon, and C. C.
Colby, of the Colby Piano Co., of Erie, Pa., were here
this week. Mr. Colby, while here, completed arrange-
ments for opening his new branch house in the World's
Fair City.
The Kimball Company are still in the front rank in
all that pertains to the music trade. They are now
making a great specialty of small pipe organs, in the
manufacture of which they are excelling. Although
their warerooms seemed large enough for almost any
state of trade they have bad to curtail desk room to
accommodate their display room. The retail trade of the
firm foots up over $30,000 more than for the same month
last year, and while the wholesale does not make quite
so good a showing it is yet very encouraging. Alto-
gether the house is congratulating itself on the change
from State street to Wabash avenue. The large music
hall in their new place is almost constantly engaged,
and the music studios are all taken for the coming year.
Mr. A. G. Cone, of the firm, is back from an extensive
summer outing and has settled down to business.
Mr. E. S. Conway is off with his family on a trip to
the Yellowstone Park, while Mr. Kimball himself is
enjoying a sojourn with his family at Geneva Lake.
Yours, &c,
Banjo, No. 456,029, F. Gretsch.
Musical instrument, No. 456,027, G. A. Ernst.
Piano pedal, No. 456,088, J. V. Goodman.
Music stand, case and portfolio, No. 456 433, S. C.
Rue.
BANJO.—Frederick Gretsch, Brooklyn, N. Y. This
invention provides a means whereby the brackets usu-
ally employed on a banjo head may be dispensed with
and the neck may be secured to the head in such a
manner as not to weaken but to strengthen the head,
with the object of lessening the cost and improving the
quality of the tone. A sounding plate with a central
opening constitutes the bottom of the head, to the
under surface of which the neck is secured, while a
clamping band encircles the body band, resting on the
sounding plate, the clips engaging the clamping band
being passed through the sounding plate and being pro-
vided with adjusting or locking devices.—Siietttific
American.
EXPORTS AND IMPORTS.
CUSTOM H O U S E , BOSTON. MASS ,
\
Exportations of Musical Instruments for the month
of June, 1891.
To Germany.
Twelve (12) pianos
$3,000
-
To England:
One hundred and seventy-four (174) organs. $10,250
2,207
All other and parts of
Total,
-
-
-
-
$12,457
To Nova Scotia.
Three (3) pianos
All other and parts of -
Total
75o
256
$ 1,00b
To Newfoundland.
Five (5) organs
$980
To Br. West Indies.
One (1) organ
$125
Combined total,
$17,568
Importations of Musical Instruments into the Port of
Boston during the month of June, 1891:
I. A. FLEMING.
POLLOCK & Co., N . Y . , are moving ahead. Their
pianos are attracting attention In many quarters,
)
Collector's Office, June 16, 189L
Countries
France
Germa n y . 5
Value.
$4,847
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