Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 269
Scan 269
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
38 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 243. See the scan on archive.org.
1"Mr. C. C. Briggs, Sr. was an expert scale draughtsman and he made many acoustic discoveries in relation to upright scales."4
2"This firm was among the first to develop the resources of the upright in America for general use."5
41860—3541/2 [address hidden]
51870—[address hidden]
61890—551/2 [address hidden]
8S. P. BROOKS
9This firm was started between 1850-60 and discontinued business between 1890-1900.
10Mr. Brooks, who had been an apprentice of C. C. Briggs, made popular priced pianofortes in a small way with a tuning device which was perfected for Mason & Hamlin.
121833—Washington n. Essex
131834—Cor. Essex & [address hidden]
141837—3701/2 [address hidden]
151839—[address hidden]
161841—[address hidden]
171842-46—Mr. Brown was listed alone at [address hidden]
19BROWN & HALLET
20This firm, consisting of Edwin Brown and Russell Hallet, who furnished the capital, started about 1833. "In 1838, Mr. Brown patented a method for damping the strings to produce the effects made possible by a shifting action, which limited the hammer action to striking one string."6 "In 1843, he patented a grand action of a very complicated nature designed to insure more perfect repetition and taking in some principles of the French grand action which was used by Chickering & Sons subsequently. This contained several minor points in which many later action improvements were anticipated."6
22In 1840 the Franklin Institute Fair Committee on Art Exhibitions bestowed highest honors on a Brown & Hallet among 21 pianofortes shown by important New York and Boston makers because "it is the smallest piano in the collection having only a keyboard of six octaves, but the tone is superior to all others. The patent soft pedal it contains is a very pleasing and effective innovation and entirely avoids the necessity of shifting the action to produce similar results."6
23Around 1842 their good reasonably priced pianoforte was a real boon to music lovers who could not afford Chickering's and other standard makes.6
24Mr. Brown about 1847 became a department foreman for Chickering & Sons, who used successfully in their grands the Swiss combined with the Brown action.
261850—5091/2 [address hidden]
271860—[address hidden]
29JACOB CHICKERING
30This firm was started comparatively soon after that of Jonas Chickering and went out of business between 1860-1870. It made a spindle leg, six octave, plain phlange-strung square.
321 Dolge, Alfred. Pianos and Their Makers P. 278.
332 Information supplied by Henry I. Tinkham, formerly with Chickering & Sons.
343 Spillane, Daniel. History of the American Pianoforte P. 171.
354 Ibid. P. 174.
365 Pauer, Ernst. The Pianist's Dictionary P. 137.
376 Spillane, Daniel. History of the American Pianoforte p. 165.
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