Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
BALTIMORE PIANO TRADE IS MORE THAN SATISFACTORY
Unusual Volume of Business Being Done by Dealers—Stieff and Shaw Factories Working Over-
time—Knabe Business Exceeds Anticipations—Firms Advertising Heavily—Other News
BALTIMORE, MD., December 20.—The final
ing. E. S. Wagner, formerly manager of the
Christmas rush in the piano field is on in Balti- music department of the Root Dry Goods Co.,
more, and the dealers express the utmost sat- Terre Haute, Ind., has joined the sales force,
isfaction, and in most instances declare this and is now captain of one of the selling crews.
will be the greatest December business in their H. C. Newlin, who is a floor salesman at the
history. Some of the older houses report it as Knabe headquarters, and who headed a crew
being the best month's business that they have for a time, was forced to give up his captaincy
had in years. The big volume of business finds because he could not get away from the store.
many of the houses short of players and certain R. J. Riggin joined one of the crews as an out-
styles of instruments, and this is having its side salesman last week. When the week ended
drawbacks. This, while it will keep some sales he had captured the individual prize for the
down, will not prevent fine business being done week's selling. G. W. West, crew captain, was
this week. Pianos and players especially are again the victor of the team prize. To prove
being received here by express, so as not to to his men what he thought of them he decided
to turn over this week's personal bonus to his
disappoint customers.
The retail selling force of the Stieff firm un- men, dividing it according to their individual
der George Waters Stieff, report an exception- records. Many special sales of high-class in-
ally fine business last week. E. F. Panetti, S.
Willard Ahalt and Rober Mouat, all figured
HOLIDAY BUSINESS IN BROOKLYN
in some fine deals during the week. AH Stieff
branches report a fine business with the week Demand for Instruments of the Better Grades,
Including Grands and Players a Feature
that closed last Saturday, and continue to ar-
range for rush shipments, although they have
been well stocked ahead to take care of the
The heavy demand for grands and player-
Christmas rush.
pianos has been a feature of the holiday busi-
Charles J. Gross, superintendent of the Stieff ness in Brooklyn up to the present period. Sales
factories, and Superintendent Kirschke, of the have met all the expectations of the dealers,
Shaw factories, have been working overtime and outside of the fact that some dealers have
to keep up with the rush. Despite the tre- experienced a shortage of the cheaper and me-
mendous output of the Shaw factories they have dium-priced instruments, all are satisfied.
The Frederick Loeser & Co. piano department
not been able to keep up with the orders. The
supply of grands by the Stieff factories has during what is considered the holiday period,
sold four Kranich & Bach player grands. E.
hardly been sufficient to meet the demands.
Robert C. Smith, manager of the Lynchburg, Paul Hamilton, manager of the piano depart-
Va., Stieff branch, who has been ill for the past ment, said the sales during December have been
three weeks, is back again on the job. Em- of unusually high-class goods.
The Otto Wissner, Inc., warerooms, 774
manuel Watz gave a recital at the Peabody
Flatbush avenue, has succeeded in closing a
last Friday and used a Stieff concert grand.
Sales Manager Taylor, of the William Knabe very heavy Christmas business. Up to this
& Co. branch here, reports business beyond ex- time, however, there has been a shortage of
pectation, and the passing of the quota of busi- instruments of the cheaper grade, which has
ness, which had been set for the month's trad- forced L. C. Lincoln, advertising manager of
struments were made by the firm during the
week. James A. Stitt, Pacific Coast manager
for William Knabe & Co., was in Baltimore last
week.
I. Son Cohen, of Cohen & Hughes, reports
a record piano business that has exceeded all
expectations. The firm has been one of the
largest users of newspaper space for piano ad-
vertising in the city for sometime past.
H. D. French, of the H. D. French Piano
Co., and the Hammann-Levin Co., have also
been using big newspaper ads featuring special
sales. Very dignified ads have come recently
from Charles M. Stieff, William Knabe & Co.,
and Sanders & Stayman Co., the Aeolian rep-
resentatives.
The Mann Piano Co., Rosenstein Piano Co.,
National Piano Co., and the various music de-
partments of the furniture and department stores
all have good reports to make on the week's
business.
the firm, to lessen the amount of space gen-
erally used in the daily papers.
The Pease warerooms recently placed on dis-
play four Circassian walnut grands and quick-
ly sold two of them. With the attention they
seem to attract there is reason to believe Man-
ager J. B. Cohen will succeed in disposing of
the other 'two before Christmas. On entering
the Pease warerooms the visitor finds on dis-
play a silver oak Pease grand, which is excep-
tionally rich looking, and is very artistic.
The player, music roll and small goods de-
partment of the warerooms of Chas. E. Gor-
ham, Inc., are now permanently installed on the
third floor of the building, the small goods be-
ing a recent addition to the line handled, while
the music rolls, which were formerly on the
first floor, have a much larger space assigned
them in their new department. An office on
the rear of the third floor has been fitted up
for the use of the manager of the section. Les-
lie H. West, manager of the Chas. E. Gorham
warerooms, is very much pleased with the re-
sults that have been obtained there. '
Our Plan to Promote the Success of
Piano
Merchants
IN
Style 130
New England
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Maryland
AND
Style E
is now being taken advantage of by many enterprising dealers who
were wise in getting in on the ground floor. There is, however,
room for more. Some fine territory is open to those who investigate
quickly. We know that you are interested in anything that will
make your business grow; and as it will not obligate you in any
way to find out how we can help you, write at once.
FREDERICK PIANO CO. &3