Scan 26
Musical Courier 1896-07-01: Vol 33 Iss 852, 1896
77 lines. Read by computer on 20 September 2026. Printed page 27. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
3This Paper has the Largest Guaranteed Circulation of any Journal in the Music Trade.
5No. 852.
6NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1896.
8SMITH & NIXON.
10THE investigation into the affairs of the firm of Smith & Nixon, Crawford, Ebersole & Smith was concluded on Friday last. It will require several days to prepare stenographic notes, which will be presented to Judge McNeil in the Insolvency Court. The hearing was held in the office of Mr. Thomas McDougall, who represents the interests of Steinway & Sons.
12The several banks were represented by ex-Judge Maxwell, while the interests of Crawford, Ebersole & Smith were looked after by Adam Kramer. No statement of the results of the investigation can be obtained until after the reports are passed on by the court.
14COE SALE CONFIRMED.
16IN the matter of the sale of the effects of A. D. Coe, of Cleveland, to the Meckel Brothers Company, of that city, which as reported in our last issue was being contested by some of the creditors, the Probate Court has confirmed the sale, the assignee, however, retaining $2,400 that was collected on accounts prior to the sale.
18The Colby Piano Company, of Erie, Pa., and the Brown & Simpson Company, of Worcester, have carried their case up to the Common Pleas Court after having replevied their goods and given the usual form of bonds. It is possible that a rigid investigation of the affairs of Mr. Coe will be instituted shortly, following the plan adopted by the creditors of Smith & Nixon.
20ONE of the reasons dealers are having so little trouble with piano actions lies in the great increase of Comstock-Cheney actions used to-day in thousands of pianos. This is something to meditate upon.
22NO one ever hears the Jewett Piano Company officers and salesmen complaining of poor business. It is part of their creed not to complain; made so through not having time to indulge in that doubtful luxury. The Jewett is a seller.
24"I DON'T know when 'Nate' will be in. I believe that when you have a man to look after things he should be let alone in the looking after of them. 'Nate' is out attending to business, and when he gets it attended to he will come in."
26The "Nate" referred to was Crosby. "Crosby, of F. G. Smith's?" you say. Of course, and the speaker was F. G., who is unruffled, although he may be just completing the negotiation for the rental of a new retail store or has a plan to buy a piano business or two. By the way, Mr. Smith makes more legitimate pianos than any man in the trade—the Bradbury, the Webster, the Henning and the Rogers Brothers; and as for retail stores—well, no one is in it with him.
28THERE are pianos other than the Starr in America that are classed as good sellers, but the Starr is among the leaders in sales. To anyone who has been in that hive of industry, the Starr factory in Richmond, Ind., this is patent; to anyone who travels the United States the reason is apparent—what's that? you ask, why? Satisfied customers bring trade, and the customers of the Starr are always satisfied.
30MR. ALBERT S. HEMINGWAY, who has charge of the Aeolian department of Otto Sutro & Co., Baltimore, was in this city on Saturday. Mr. Hemingway was hastily summoned to attend the bedside of his father, W. H. Hemingway, the genial traveling representative of the Wilcox & White Organ Company, who has just been attacked with a serious illness and is now at his summer home on the Connecticut shore of the Sound.
32"AND Colell was there." It rained Wednesday, but that made no difference to Colell; the Wissner piano was to be at Brighton Beach in the Seidl concerts—"and Colell was there." When you stop to think of it Otto Wissner is a giant as an advertiser. There is hardly a name known better in Brooklyn than Wissner's, certainly not a piano dealer's name, and Wissner is known in New York. It would make many a piano man open his eyes to see the New York trade Wissner gets. Has a delivery wagon over in New York constantly. How does he do it? Can't you see?
34MR. NAHUM STETSON, of Messrs. Steinway & Sons, will leave next week for an extended trip through the West. Mr. Chas. H. Steinway is due to arrive from Europe on Thursday, July 2.
36No changes in the working forces of the Steinway houses at Cincinnati and Pittsburgh have been made as yet, with the single exception that Mr. E. Otten has been engaged as an assistant to Mr. Ernst Urchs in the Cincinnati branch.
38No arrangements have been consummated for the running of other grades of pianos at these places, but it is still probable that the Hazelton will be selected as the second.
40HERE is the vacation scheme of the hard workers of Behr Brothers & Co.:
41Horace F. Brown is to be away this week for a time at Niagara Falls. Shortly after Edward Behr spends two weeks pleasureing; and August 1, or near about, Chas. H. Burchard will spend two weeks at his country home on Long Island. Everybody will be back rested and ready for work by about August 15. Then—well, it is too early for any predictions, but the Behr piano will be in it this fall. There are enough people in this world who appreciate artistic goods, and who will have them, to give the Behr piano a fine clientele. And these people are the ones who will be sought out by such men as Edward Behr and Horace F. Brown. Chas. H. Burchard? Well, sometimes there are men that do more effective work than those who are on parade, and Burchard is one of them.
43100,000.
45THE great house of J. & C. Fischer has about completed its 100,000th piano, an achievement never reached before by any American piano manufacturer. This 100,000th piano is a grand; but enough of what it is until its photograph appears in these columns, with a full description.
47Congratulations are in order, and we doubt not that every piano manufacturer in America will send written congratulations to J. & C. Fischer, the founders of this house, Chas. H. Fischer being alive and active to-day. It must make his heart glad to notice the fruition of his work. Did ever a founder live to see his first work develop into a mammoth enterprise that man is Chas. H. Fischer, and he has everything to be proud of.
49The house of Fischer lately laid on its advertising table a reprint of an article that appeared in THE MUSICAL COURIER of April 1, 1896, which we think meet to reproduce and to again indorse.
51OFFICE OF
52THE FISCHER PIANO,
53110 FIFTH AVENUE,
54NEW YORK.
56Read What The Musical Courier of April 1, 1896, Says About the Fischer Grands.
58The theory advanced by mechanical experts in piano building, that a house really cannot lay claim to producing a high type of instruments until it has produced more than one grand piano, in fact several that stand the test of expert examination and meet the requirements of musical artists, has so become one of the accepted and unquestioned tenets of the trade that there is not a manufacturing concern of any importance and pretensions that has not tried or intends to try to reach the standard set down by it.
60It does not follow that all houses that make a few grands are necessarily turning out high grade pianos, nor is it true that putting out a grand, excellent though it may be, immediately raises the grades of the other instruments. It is, however, true that houses that have made a conspicuous success with their uprights have added materially to their fame by their grands, and have enhanced the value of their uprights by the artistic excellence of their grands.
62This has been the case with several houses, prominent among which is the famous firm of J. & C. Fischer. This house, the upright pianos of which have a popularity unsurpassed, has made grands of a quality not surprising to those who know its aims, resources and abilities, but which have not, in our opinion, had the notice they deserve.
64The Fischer concert grand is an instrument that can stand every expert test; it is an artist's instrument, and were the firm to enter the concert field on a large scale it would without doubt bring them a new renown. This they probably will not do, though there is no reason why they should not.
66The house apparently prefers to extended artistic glories the distinction already won as manufacturers of the home pianos of America. To further strengthen this position, and with the knowledge that the small grand is steadily increasing in popularity, they are making baby grand pianos that are in themselves evidences of the artistic aims of the house and instruments that can safely challenge comparison anywhere.
68These baby grand pianos are really remarkable instruments—remarkable in their volume and quality of tone, the direct result of scientific and skilled piano building and scale drawing. They are pianos on which Messrs. J. & C. Fischer can safely rest their reputation, for they are in every sense artistic instruments.
70We know these Fischer baby grands, and have put them to the severest tests, from which their musical qualities have come out triumphantly, and we know that every Fischer agent, if he has a grand trade at all, can do a satisfactory business with them. They are instruments for which we predict as solid a popularity as that enjoyed by the Fischer uprights.
72The Staib Action Company.
74SOME of the large Western piano manufacturers are using the Staib actions, and express themselves as well satisfied with the workmanship and durability.
76This make of action is increasing in favor, and new friends are springing up from different sections of the country.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.