Music Trade Review
Issue: 1897 Vol. 25 N. 20 - Page 7
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From the Editor's Note Book.
rS
*^w^x$5X<}*?i£573>cS!§(5S^
THE STENCIL QUESTION REASONS FOR THE RISE OF THE STENCIL PIANO—WHY IT IS NOW
IN ITS DECADENCE THE OPINIONS OF DEALERS—TRADE IN THE CENTRAL WEST—
FOPULARITY OF THE PACKARD PRODUCT THE STARRS SHINE BRIGHTLY
AT RICHMOND—THE JOHN CHURCH CO. A NOVEL CATALOGUE
BALDWINS BUSY—KRELL OPTIMISTIC RETAIL TRADE.
HE question is often propound-
ed, in these close-of-the cen-
tury days, why is the output
of stencil pianos steadily
increasing? In many ways
it may be difficult to answer
the question satisfactorily, and as there
is a multiplicity of opinions concerning
the causes, perhaps it will always remain as
one of the unsolved questions of the trade.
During the past three or four years the
rise of the stencil may be attributed large-
ly, in my opinion, to the fact that the
cry everywhere has been for cheap goods,
cheap everything, and dealers in pianos
found their trade not different than mer-
chants in other lines, hence they were
compelled to handle cheap pianos. The
manufacturers of reputable instruments
held their prices firm, consequently to sat-
isfy the demand for cheap goods the deal-
ers were forced to look elsewhere. The
manufacturers of cheap instruments are
necessarily limited in number, and as the
demand came to a piano maker from sev-
eral dealers in one town, he was compelled
in order to catch all the trade that came to
him to place different brands upon his in-
struments, thus supplying, oftentimes,
three or four dealers in one town with
practically the same instruments only
stenciled with a different name.
As the heavy demand has been for cheap
pianos for three years, the result has been
thousands of instruments have been scat-
tered all over America under miscellaneous
names which could properly be grouped
together under the generic term—stencil.
Manufacturers who have supplied such
wares have exhibited about as much senti-
ment in their business as an auctioneer
uses in handling old paintings at a sheriff's
sale—he is there to get what he can out of
it. It is the same with the commer-
cial piano manufacturer who treats the
subject of piano building in the same busi-
ness light that the stencil hat manufactur-
er treats his trade. Making for every one
—branding for every one.
At the end of ten years his name is
worth nothing in the trade. He has no
trade mark, there is no demand for his in-
struments and he can be eclipsed by any
new maker who can undersell him on his
stencil product. Again there is another
reason, one which I have heard repeatedly
emphasized during my two and a half
months of trade travel this fall. It is
this:—
There are many dealers who claim to
have been unjustly treated at times by
manufacturers in the hasty transfer of
agencies and have concluded after a num-
ber of unsatisfactory experiences to have
at least one brand of pianos which they
could control absolutely. Only a day or
two ago a well-known dealer in a Western
city said to me while chatting upon the
subject of stencil pianos:
" I will tell you why I handle a piano
under my own name, I have been in busi-
ness here for nearly a score of years and
during that time have worked up a fair
trade for a number of different makes of
instruments. I have spent time and money
in creating a demand for them. An en-
vious competitor of mine who frequently
came across the
piano in sales con-
cluded presumably that it was a hard piano
to beat and that he must get it to either
extinguish it or to assist his trade. I in-
cline to the belief that he wished to reap
the benefit of my work. He visited the
manufacturer and made him a most allur-
ing offer; he intimated that he could sell
twice as many pianos as I was disposing
of, and in support of his statement he was
willing to place an initial offer for a car
load or two. His talk convinced the manu-
facturer that I was not working the terri-
tory as I should, and that his piano would
almost sell at sight. The result of the
meeting was I saw my competitor's notice
in the papers advertising the
piano.
That was the first intimation that I re-
ceived that my work was not satisfactory,
as the manufacturer did not even show
me the courtesy to notify me of the
change. After one more experience not
quite as bad I concluded that among my me-
dium grade there should be just one
brand that would be my own property."
"And," I said in reply, " you mention
having created a demand for the
piano in your territory. Let me ask, Was
the work which you accomplished in be-
half of that piano undertaken with the
idea of benefiting yourself or the manufac-
turer?"
"Why, myself, of course."
14
Naturally, in the vernacular you found
"a good thing," had sense enough to know
it and pushed it along. You received a good
round profit on every piano you sold, and
you are a little bit disgruntled because you
could not have it in perpetuity. I do not up-
hold the gross breach of business etiquette
in not properly considering you on the part
of the manufacturer, but there are a num-
ber of men who entertain similar views to
yourself. Thinking because you find a
good piano salable that you alone are re-
sponsible for its qualities of excellence, its
selling powers and all other attributes, you
do not place half enough credit to the ac-
count of the piano and the manufacturers
behind it. Suppose you have expended
money in advertising it, you have reaped
your benefit as well as the manufacturer."
He admitted that he had credited himself
with a little too much on account of that
piano. I mention this and it is one of the
many similar cases which have come be-
fore my immediate observation while on
this extended jaunt.
Dealers are prone to take too much
credit to themselves for the favorable re-
putation which certain instruments acquire
while under their control and many of them
pluck the frequent opportunity of sound-
ing the mellow notes of their own praise,
making only modest reference to the minor
part, in their opinion, which the instru-
ment has borne. It may be the fault of
human nature.
I am convinced that the transfer of
agencies has figured in no slight way in the
maintenance of the stencil. My deduc-
tions are formed by what I have seen and
heard and not upon unsupported theory.
I want to state at this point that I be-
lieve that the stencil business will steadily
decline from this on, not because of any
particular stamp of condemnation placed
upon it, or by reason of unwillingness on
the part of dealers to associate themselves
with it, but simply from the fact that man-
ufacturers themselves will find it unprofit-
able to continue it. Their profit has been
slight and with the increased cost of man-
ufacture they will be compelled to advance
the price to dealers, and again the all im-
portant question obtrudes itself, they are
creating nothing in the way of values for
their product which may not be blown
away with the morrow. Stencil piano
making will decrease, not on account of its
alleged business illegitimacy but on ac-
count of business expediency.
*
*
*
*
Following up one of the points empha-
sized in my last letter, that the nearer we
approach to the farmer the better we find
the state of trade, I wish to state that in
nearly all of the large towns I have visited
during the past ten days, I have found the
same conditions existing. While convers-
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
From the Editor's Note Book.
rS
*^w^x$5X<}*?i£573>cS!§(5S^
THE STENCIL QUESTION REASONS FOR THE RISE OF THE STENCIL PIANO—WHY IT IS NOW
IN ITS DECADENCE THE OPINIONS OF DEALERS—TRADE IN THE CENTRAL WEST—
FOPULARITY OF THE PACKARD PRODUCT THE STARRS SHINE BRIGHTLY
AT RICHMOND—THE JOHN CHURCH CO. A NOVEL CATALOGUE
BALDWINS BUSY—KRELL OPTIMISTIC RETAIL TRADE.
HE question is often propound-
ed, in these close-of-the cen-
tury days, why is the output
of stencil pianos steadily
increasing? In many ways
it may be difficult to answer
the question satisfactorily, and as there
is a multiplicity of opinions concerning
the causes, perhaps it will always remain as
one of the unsolved questions of the trade.
During the past three or four years the
rise of the stencil may be attributed large-
ly, in my opinion, to the fact that the
cry everywhere has been for cheap goods,
cheap everything, and dealers in pianos
found their trade not different than mer-
chants in other lines, hence they were
compelled to handle cheap pianos. The
manufacturers of reputable instruments
held their prices firm, consequently to sat-
isfy the demand for cheap goods the deal-
ers were forced to look elsewhere. The
manufacturers of cheap instruments are
necessarily limited in number, and as the
demand came to a piano maker from sev-
eral dealers in one town, he was compelled
in order to catch all the trade that came to
him to place different brands upon his in-
struments, thus supplying, oftentimes,
three or four dealers in one town with
practically the same instruments only
stenciled with a different name.
As the heavy demand has been for cheap
pianos for three years, the result has been
thousands of instruments have been scat-
tered all over America under miscellaneous
names which could properly be grouped
together under the generic term—stencil.
Manufacturers who have supplied such
wares have exhibited about as much senti-
ment in their business as an auctioneer
uses in handling old paintings at a sheriff's
sale—he is there to get what he can out of
it. It is the same with the commer-
cial piano manufacturer who treats the
subject of piano building in the same busi-
ness light that the stencil hat manufactur-
er treats his trade. Making for every one
—branding for every one.
At the end of ten years his name is
worth nothing in the trade. He has no
trade mark, there is no demand for his in-
struments and he can be eclipsed by any
new maker who can undersell him on his
stencil product. Again there is another
reason, one which I have heard repeatedly
emphasized during my two and a half
months of trade travel this fall. It is
this:—
There are many dealers who claim to
have been unjustly treated at times by
manufacturers in the hasty transfer of
agencies and have concluded after a num-
ber of unsatisfactory experiences to have
at least one brand of pianos which they
could control absolutely. Only a day or
two ago a well-known dealer in a Western
city said to me while chatting upon the
subject of stencil pianos:
" I will tell you why I handle a piano
under my own name, I have been in busi-
ness here for nearly a score of years and
during that time have worked up a fair
trade for a number of different makes of
instruments. I have spent time and money
in creating a demand for them. An en-
vious competitor of mine who frequently
came across the
piano in sales con-
cluded presumably that it was a hard piano
to beat and that he must get it to either
extinguish it or to assist his trade. I in-
cline to the belief that he wished to reap
the benefit of my work. He visited the
manufacturer and made him a most allur-
ing offer; he intimated that he could sell
twice as many pianos as I was disposing
of, and in support of his statement he was
willing to place an initial offer for a car
load or two. His talk convinced the manu-
facturer that I was not working the terri-
tory as I should, and that his piano would
almost sell at sight. The result of the
meeting was I saw my competitor's notice
in the papers advertising the
piano.
That was the first intimation that I re-
ceived that my work was not satisfactory,
as the manufacturer did not even show
me the courtesy to notify me of the
change. After one more experience not
quite as bad I concluded that among my me-
dium grade there should be just one
brand that would be my own property."
"And," I said in reply, " you mention
having created a demand for the
piano in your territory. Let me ask, Was
the work which you accomplished in be-
half of that piano undertaken with the
idea of benefiting yourself or the manufac-
turer?"
"Why, myself, of course."
14
Naturally, in the vernacular you found
"a good thing," had sense enough to know
it and pushed it along. You received a good
round profit on every piano you sold, and
you are a little bit disgruntled because you
could not have it in perpetuity. I do not up-
hold the gross breach of business etiquette
in not properly considering you on the part
of the manufacturer, but there are a num-
ber of men who entertain similar views to
yourself. Thinking because you find a
good piano salable that you alone are re-
sponsible for its qualities of excellence, its
selling powers and all other attributes, you
do not place half enough credit to the ac-
count of the piano and the manufacturers
behind it. Suppose you have expended
money in advertising it, you have reaped
your benefit as well as the manufacturer."
He admitted that he had credited himself
with a little too much on account of that
piano. I mention this and it is one of the
many similar cases which have come be-
fore my immediate observation while on
this extended jaunt.
Dealers are prone to take too much
credit to themselves for the favorable re-
putation which certain instruments acquire
while under their control and many of them
pluck the frequent opportunity of sound-
ing the mellow notes of their own praise,
making only modest reference to the minor
part, in their opinion, which the instru-
ment has borne. It may be the fault of
human nature.
I am convinced that the transfer of
agencies has figured in no slight way in the
maintenance of the stencil. My deduc-
tions are formed by what I have seen and
heard and not upon unsupported theory.
I want to state at this point that I be-
lieve that the stencil business will steadily
decline from this on, not because of any
particular stamp of condemnation placed
upon it, or by reason of unwillingness on
the part of dealers to associate themselves
with it, but simply from the fact that man-
ufacturers themselves will find it unprofit-
able to continue it. Their profit has been
slight and with the increased cost of man-
ufacture they will be compelled to advance
the price to dealers, and again the all im-
portant question obtrudes itself, they are
creating nothing in the way of values for
their product which may not be blown
away with the morrow. Stencil piano
making will decrease, not on account of its
alleged business illegitimacy but on ac-
count of business expediency.
*
*
*
*
Following up one of the points empha-
sized in my last letter, that the nearer we
approach to the farmer the better we find
the state of trade, I wish to state that in
nearly all of the large towns I have visited
during the past ten days, I have found the
same conditions existing. While convers-
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