Wm. Knabe & Co. was a piano manufacturing company in Baltimore, Maryland, from the middle of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York, until 1982. The name is currently used for a line of pianos manufactured by Samick Musical Instruments.
Valentin Wilhelm Ludwig Knabe [1] was born in Creuzburg, Saxe-Weimar, on June 3, 1803. The French campaigns in Germany in 1813 prevented him from studying to become an apothecary like his father, and instead he apprenticed with a cabinet maker, after which he worked two years as a journeyman cabinet maker, then for three years for a piano maker in Gotha, before working as a journeyman piano maker in different cities in Germany.
In 1831, Knabe accompanied his fiancée's family when they emigrated from Saxe-Meiningen to the United States, but the head of the family died during the voyage and Knabe and his bride remained in Baltimore instead of continuing to Hermann, Missouri, where a brother had settled several years earlier. Knabe worked for the well-known pianomaker Henry Hartge, and eventually abandoned his plans to become a farmer. In 1831, he started selling and repairing used pianos from his house at the corner of Liberty and Lexington Streets.[ citation needed ]
In 1839, Knabe formed a partnership with Henry Gaehle for the purpose of manufacturing pianos and by 1841 they moved to larger workshops at 13 South Liberty Street. [2] In 1843 they opened warerooms at the corner of Eutaw Street and Cowpen Alley, and four years later removed their warerooms to 9 Eutaw Street, opposite the Eutaw house, selling pianos priced between $180 and $400. [3] By 1852 they had expanded to 4, 6, 8, 9 and 11 Eutaw Street. [4] Knabe & Gaehle won first premiums for square pianos from the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts in 1848, 1849, and 1850, as well as for grand pianos in 1849.
In 1852, the company reorganized as Knabe, Gaehle & Co. with the admission of Edward Betts as partner, [5] and by 1853 advertised their establishment was the largest in the South, employing over 100 workmen. [6] They manufactured six- to seven-octave pianos with "a double action, like Chickering's", selling for between $200 and $500. [7]
In November 1854, their factory at Cowpen Alley at the rear of Eutaw House burned, at an estimated loss of $190,000, [8] and five weeks later their factory at Baltimore street near Paca Street burned, [9] reportedly with little insurance coverage.
Proceedings started early 1855 in order to dissolve the partnership. [10] Henry Gaehle died, and Knabe advertised that he had purchased all the remaining stock and materials and would continue in business as Wm. Knabe & Co. at the old stand at 1, 3, 5, and 7 North Eutaw Street, opposite the Eutaw house. [11] William Gaehle, who had become the senior partner, advertised that he was in business as Wm. Gaehle & Co., manufacturing grand and square pianos at the corner of Pratt and Green streets and with warerooms at the corner of Eutaw and Fayette streets. [12]
Knabe purchased a former paper mill at the corner of West and China streets for a new factory, and by 1859 had established warerooms at 207 Baltimore street. [13] He won gold medals for square pianos from the Maryland Institute in 1855, 1856, 1857 and 1858; [14] silver medals from the Metropolitan Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1857; a medal from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1856; and first premiums from the Mechanics' Institute in Richmond, Virginia, in 1855 and 1856. [15]
In 1860, Knabe started building a five-story factory on Eutaw and West streets, but had only completed one of its wings at the outbreak of the American Civil War, which compelled them to seek new trade in the West to make up for the loss of their principal market in the South. [16] William Knabe died on May 21, 1864, and was succeeded by his sons William and Ernest J. Knabe , and son-in-law Charles Keidel.
In 1866, Wm Knabe & Co. introduced their agraffe treble, a piano whose agraffe was threaded into a heavier piece of brass instead of directly into the iron frame. [17]
By 1866, the company employed about 230 workmen and manufactured about a thousand pianos a year, [18] —up to 30 a week—including uprights, squares, and grands. The factory was equipped with a 30 horsepower (22 kW) steam engine, as well as steam-powered elevators and drying rooms, and had been augmented with a second 40-foot (12 m) wide building where grand cases, sounding boards, and actions were manufactured and cases varnished and iron frames gilded. [19] Further additions and a cupola completed the factory, which in 1869 fronted 210 feet (64 m) on Eutaw Street and 165 feet (50 m) on West Street. [20] Their sales ranked third in the United States, after Steinway & Sons of New York and Chickering & Sons of Boston, [21] and by 1870 their output was estimated to be about forty pianos a week, priced between $600 and $2,000. [22]
In 1873, Wm. Knabe & Co. established their own warerooms at 112 Fifth Avenue in New York. They exhibited grand, square, and upright pianos as well as a Tschudi & Broadwood harpsichord at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, [23] and due to the revised awards system they claimed highest honors along with many of their coexhibitors. [24] In 1882, they delivered a rosewood concert grand to the White House for President Chester A. Arthur. [25]
William Knabe, jr., died in 1889. [26] The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $1,000,000 the same year, with Ernest J. Knabe as president.
Ernest J. Knabe died in 1894 [27] and was succeeded by his sons, both of whom had trained at the factory. Ernest J. Knabe, jr. was elected president and William Knabe, vice president and treasurer. [28]
By 1902, Wm. Knabe & Co. had established agencies in Canada and England, and had mortgaged the factory for capital to fund further expansion. [29] By 1906, the factory occupied seven buildings with the original buildings extensively expanded, with a total of about 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) of carefully planned floor space [30] and 765 employees. Although the plant included modern appliances such as individually powered machines and a dust-collection system connected to the boiler, Knabe advertised their standards required their pianos to be carefully handcrafted, so that a plain upright took six months and a grand two years to complete. [31]
In 1908, Wm. Knabe & Co., with Chickering & Sons and the Foster-Armstrong Co., of East Rochester, New York, formed the American Piano Co. under the laws of New Jersey, headed by Ernst J. Knabe Jr., president, and C. H. W. Foster of Chickering & Sons, and George G. Foster, of Foster-Armstrong, controlling their respective companies as well as Haines Brothers, Marshall & Wendell, Brewster, and J. B. Cook & Co. with a combined output of about 18,000 pianos a year. [32]
Ernest and William Knabe resigned their positions in 1909, and following a series of business troubles in New York [33] they incorporated Knabe Brothers in Ohio in 1911, with offices at Cincinnati, [34] manufacturing upright and grand pianos at a factory formerly owned by the Smith and Nixon piano company in nearby Norwood, [35] "free from the yoke of a commercialism that figured out pianos by square inches of wood and decimal points in the allotment of wires". [36] American Piano Co. filed suit over the use of the name, but the resulting injunction only prevented Knabe Brothers from using their original nameboard label and required the brothers to indicate this was a new company. [37] The plant burned in January 1912, [38] but they quickly resumed production at a temporary factory [39] before building a modern factory on the old site. The company went into receivership late in 1916 on account of an unpaid loan, [40] and the brothers declared bankruptcy by the end of the year. [41]
Ernest J. Knabe died in 1927 [42] and William Knabe in 1939. [43]
In 1927, Wm. Knabe & Co. removed their New York warerooms from 437 Fifth Avenue at 39th Street to 657 Fifth Avenue, corner of 52nd Street, [44] and in 1928 moved to Ampico Tower at Fifth Avenue and 47th Street as part of American Piano Co.'s move to consolidate the sales of all their brands [45] in an unsuccessful attempt to make up for a sharp decline in profits. American went into receivership in 1929, and Knabe's liabilities were listed as $286,000 and assets $415,000. [46]
In 1930, American's assets were purchased by the American Piano Corporation, newly incorporated under the laws of Delaware, whose officers included former executives from American as well as executives from the Aeolian Company. [47] The Knabe factory was closed, as well as the Chickering factory in Boston, and their production ultimately transferred to East Rochester, New York, where they were established as separate divisions. The old factories, including Mason & Hamlin in Boston and the Amphion in Syracuse, New York, were put on the market. [48]
In 1932, the American Piano Co. merged with the Aeolian Company, Aeolian-Weber's piano subsidiary, to form the Aeolian American Corporation which consolidated the control of more than 20 piano brands, [49] as well as action manufacturing and plate casting divisions. [50] In 1936, it ranked as the fourth-largest producer in the country, after Kimball, Baldwin and Winter & Co. [51]
Berthold Neuer, who had been vice president and general manager from 1927 [52] died in 1938, [53] and his successor Richard K. Paynter died in 1940. [54]
In 1942, the East Rochester factories were contracted to manufacture military aircraft parts, keeping the plants and personnel in operation, [55] but by late 1949 piano production returned to full capacity. [56] The Aeolian Company and the American Piano Corporation recapitalized and merged with the Aeolian-American Corporation in 1951, [57] and in 1957 was purchased by the owners of Winter & Co., based in Bronx, New York. [58]
By 1981, the combined divisions at the East Rochester factory employed about 300; [59] it closed the following year. [60]
In 1985, Sohmer & Co. purchased the Knabe and Mason & Hamlin trademarks and their patterns and equipment from Citicorp Industrial Credit Co., Aeolian's principal creditors. Sohmer & Co. had planned to resume production of the existing models from both divisions but was itself sold and the companies reorganized with Sohmer and Knabe as subsidiaries of Mason & Hamlin. [61]
Wm. Knabe & Co. pianos are manufactured by Samick Musical Instruments, Ltd., which acquired the name from PianoDisc, owners of Mason & Hamlin, in 2001. [62]
As of 2007, Knabes are offered in three sizes of vertical pianos – a 119 cm (47 inches) in three furniture case styles, as well as 121 cm (48 inches) and 131 cm (52 inches) models – and four sizes of grand pianos – three case styles each of 158 cm (5 feet 3 inches) the WKG53, 173 cm (5 feet 8 inches) the WKG58, 193 cm (6 feet 4 inches) the WKG64, and 215 cm (7 ft) WKG70 models.
In early 2006, Samick Music Corporation, distributor for Samick in the United States and Canada, announced it had started building a 210,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) distribution center and factory in Gallatin, Tennessee, where they plan to manufacture Knabe and J. P. Pramberger lines beginning in late 2006 or early 2007. [63]
Elvis Presley's white 1912 Knabe was auctioned on eBay on August 10–20, 2017. [64]
In the late 20th century, the abandoned Baltimore Knabe factory at Eutaw and West Streets was razed to make way for the Baltimore Ravens' football stadium. A sidewalk keyboard mosaic on the southwest corner of the stadium honors the Knabe legacy. The cupola that was located atop the factory now stands on the grounds of the Baltimore Museum of Industry. [65] [66]
HDC YoungChang is a South Korean manufacturer of pianos and industrial wood working machinery, headquartered in Incheon, South Korea. Young Chang currently holds 50% of the South Korean piano market. The company is among the largest and most automated of the world's piano manufacturers.
Samick Musical Instruments Co., Ltd. is a South Korean musical instrument manufacturer. Founded in 1958 as Samick Pianos, it is now one of the world's largest musical instrument manufacturers and an owner of shares in several musical instrument manufacturing companies.
Chickering & Sons was an American piano manufacturer located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 1823 by Jonas Chickering and James Stewart, but the partnership dissolved four years later. By 1830 Jonas Chickering became partners with John Mackay, manufacturing pianos as "Chickering & Company", and later "Chickering & Mackays" until the senior Mackay's death in 1841, and reorganized as "Chickering & Sons" in 1853. Chickering pianos continued to be made until 1983.
Mason & Hamlin is an American manufacturer of handcrafted grand and upright pianos, currently based in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1854, it is one of two surviving American piano manufacturers from the "Golden Age" of pianos, although some smaller piano manufacturers have since started in the United States.
Kimball International, Inc. is an American company which consists of furniture brands: Kimball, National, Interwoven, Etc., David Edward, D'Style and Kimball Hospitality. It is the successor to W.W. Kimball and Company, the world's largest piano and organ manufacturer at certain times in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Jonas Chickering was a piano manufacturer in Boston, Massachusetts.
Charles M. Stieff (1805–1862) was a 19th-century American industrialist and piano manufacturer, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Although his company went out of business in 1951, Stieff pianos are still highly regarded. They are often referred to as "The poor man's Steinway".
Timothy Gilbert was an American piano manufacturer, abolitionist and religious organizer in Boston, Massachusetts. His brother Lemuel Gilbert was also a piano manufacturer.
Sohmer & Co. was a piano manufacturing company founded in New York City in 1872. Sohmer & Co. marketed the first modern baby grand piano, and also manufactured pianos with aliquot stringing and bridge agraffes, as well as Cecilian "all-inside" player pianos and Welte-Mignon-Licensee reproducing pianos. Sohmer pianos were owned by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, and composers Victor Herbert and Irving Berlin. Sohmer is now a line of pianos manufactured by Samick Music Corporation in Korea.
Lindeman was a name used by a series of piano manufacturers in New York in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The concern was founded by William Lindeman (1794–1875) on a small scale in Dresden in about 1822, and reestablished by him in New York City in 1835 or 1836, where it grew to a medium size within twenty years. American piano historian Daniel Spillane credited him as one of the first successful immigrant German piano makers in the United States.
American Piano Company (Ampico) was an American piano manufacturer formed in 1908 through the merger of Wm. Knabe & Co., Chickering & Sons, Marshall & Wendell, and Foster-Armstrong. They later purchased the Mason & Hamlin piano company as their flagship piano. The merger created one of the largest American piano manufacturers. In 1932, it was merged with the Aeolian Company to form Aeolian-American Co.
Steinway Hall is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and Steinway-Häuser are located in cities such as New York City, London, Berlin, and Vienna.
Frederick Mathushek was a piano maker who worked in Worms, Germany, and in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, during the second half of the nineteenth century. His name was used by several different piano manufacturers through the 1950s, and was filed independently as a trademark for musical instruments in 2005 and 2008.
The Aeolian Company was a musical-instrument making firm whose products included player organs, pianos, sheet music, records and phonographs. Founded in 1887, it was at one point the world's largest such firm. During the mid 20th century, it surpassed Kimball to become the largest supplier of pianos in the United States, having contracts with Steinway & Sons to provide its Duo-Art system for installation in Steinway pianos. It went out of business in 1985.
Steck was a brand of pianos manufactured from 1857 to 1985. They were initially made by George Steck & Company before combining with the Aeolian Company in 1904. The Aeolian Company went bankrupt in 1985. The Steck piano brand was then sold to Sohmer & Co., and then to America Sejung Corporation, which dissolved in 2013.
Thomas Edward Chickering was a piano manufacturer and soldier.
The Cable Company was an American manufacturer and distributor of pianos and reed organs that operated independently from 1880 to 1936.
The Weber Piano Company is a former piano manufacturing company based in New York City and East Rochester, New York from the middle of the 19th century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York until 1985, when Aeolian went out of business.
689 Fifth Avenue is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 54th Street. The building was designed by Warren and Wetmore and constructed from 1925 to 1927.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
