Presto

MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1927
10 Cents a Copy
CHICKERING PIANO
SEVENTY YEARS AGO
Copy of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,
Dated April 16, 1859, Tells Long Ago
Facts of Piano Manufacturing of
Chickering & Sons, Boston.
JONAS CHICKERING'S PART
Genius, Energy and Rigid Probity of Founder
Formed Firm Basis of Fine Century-
Old Policies.
A copy of the April L6, 1859, issue of "Frank
Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," which has just been
secured by Chickering & Sons for its historical
library, contains some very interesting information
on the early days of American piano manufacture.
A good idea of the universal appeal of pianos and
the status of the industry in America at that time
may be gathered from the following extract:
"The importance of this branch of manufacture in
the United States can hardly be estimated. Those
who live in our large cities can arrive at some ap-
name became a sort of household word throughout
the United States.
Pictures Great Factory.
"For thirty-seven years the vast business built up
and sustained by the energy and integrity of Jonas
Chickering has gone on increasing, until now it is
literally the mammoth establishment of America, and
with but few equals in any part of the world. The
Chickering factory has always been a model of order,
regularity and harmony, but vast as was the estab-
lishment up to the few last years, the new building
which we illustrate this day throws it, as it does all
manufactories of a similar nature on this continent,
into the shade. It eclipses in vastness and perfection
of detail anything of the kind yet attempted in
America."
Many old-fashioned wood cut illustrations used
throughout, depicting the various steps of piano
manufacture and the Chickering factory, which was
then the largest factory under one roof in America,
give an added touch of historical flavor.
To Jonas Chickering and his sons the following
tribute was paid:
What Founder Transmitted.
"The late Mr. Jonas Chickering enjoyed an en-
viable reputation not only for business talent, energy
and rigid probity, but for generous and active sym-
pathy with his fellow men. To the musical profession
he was princely in his munificence, and though many
may have forgotten the hand whose uninquiring
liberality smoothed many an early difficulty in their
A Visit to Chicjtering's Pianoforte Manufactory, Tremont Street, Boston, Jffass.
CHICKERING FACTORY IN 1859.
proximate estimate, for he sees in every house he
visits a pianoforte. But if he travels from state to
state he becomes thoroughly impressed with the
magnitude of the traffic in this branch of industry,
for in the citizen's brick house, in the squatter's log
cabin, in the newly-settled village, and in the heart
of the wildest districts, the pleasant tone and the
consolation of the piano will alike be found. In
their manufacture millions of dollars are invested,
and lens of thousands of hands employed; these re-
ceive good living wages, and are among the most
respectable of our mechanics."
Chickering Development.
A history of the development of the piano from
the Greek psalterion, or typanum, which was merely
a box with strings stretched across it, up to the time
Jonas Chickering started manufacturing pianos is
then given. The article goes on to say:
"It is only within the last quarter of a century that
America has taken any rank among the nations in
the manufacturing of pianofortes. The movement
in this direction certainly received its most direct
and powerful impulse from the perseverance, energy,
and skill of the late widely esteemed Jonas Chicker-
ing of Boston. Jonas Chickering commenced bus-
iness somewhere about the year of 1820, and so suc-
cessful was he in producing the sweetest toned and
pleasantest actioned piano that in a few years his
way, there are hundreds who now gladly testify to
the noble qualities and disinterested kindness of the
thoughtful friend, who, after a useful and well-spent
life, now sleeps in his honored grave.
"The firm of Chicktring & Sons is now repre-
sented by the sons of the elder Chickering—Colonel
Thomas Chickering, who watches over the interest
of the vast establishment in . Boston, and Frank
Chickering, who fosters the widely spread influence
and the still increasing business of the firm in New
York. Though we may with propriety speak well of
the dead, it might be deemed in questionable taste if
we spoke all we thought of the living.
"To say that the Messrs. Chickering are thorough
business men is no compliment, for the enormous
business which they control and which we illustrate
this day speaks louder in their favor in that respect
than anything we could utter. In their hands the
character and popularity of the house has lost none
of its prestige, but with the tongue of good report
in their favor, and with hosts of friends inherited
from their father, and held fast by their own social
and moral worth, they may view with pardonable
pride the enormous property entrusted to 'their care,
increasing in value and growing in prosperity."
Lowenstein's Department Store, Memphis, Tenn.,
has added a piano section under the management of
R. J. Winters.
$2 The Year
ENCOURAGING THE
ARTISTIC DESIGNS
An Important Part in the National Piano Pro-
motion Scheme Are Dealers' Efforts to
Further Sales of Handsome Period
and Other Models.
PROGRESSIVE MAKERS
Many Manufacturers Now Distinguished by Produc-
tion of Highly Artistic Instruments Which Raise
the Tone of the Retail Trade.
As a rule the piano customer today is keenly inter-
ested 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 qual-
ities and the character for endurance in the piano
he considers most desirable, but it depends upon him-
self 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 includes
period designs in his line. Some of the makers are
distinguished by the extent of the 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 discriminat-
ing 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 the increased interest
of the public in period models and the ability to
differentiate between one and the other. And the
dealers and salesmen in the music trade are in con-
sequence 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 are not versed in the beau-
tiful forms.
A Bit of History.
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.
But, as the general run of furniture makers were
indifferent to the growing artistic taste of the people,
the old, nondescript numbers in furniture were corr-
tinued from year to year. The first jolt to their
equanimity came when the furniture industry formed
trade associations and met annually to compare notes.
When inspired speakers impressed the necessity for
a closer association with art in furniture making,
they were considered impractically "highbrow" by the
unprogressive ones. Then followed the separation
of the regenerated from the mossbacks in the furni-
ture 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. Education of
•the furniture buyer became a more important part in
selling methods and, thanks to the effectiveness of
the furniture makers' propaganda, the piano buyer
has a greater appreciation of the beautiful and artistic
in piano design.
Add Tone to Trade.
The true and artistic period designs elevate the
tone of the piano trade but the makeshifts for period
designs are really detrimental. The plan to simplify
production is too often subservient to artistic ambition.
Giving a piano the mere semblance to a period model
is falling short of a purpose. Producing a period
design 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
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