Frederick Mathushek

Frederick Mathushek

Frederick Mathushek (born June 9, 1814 in Mannheim ; † November 9, 1891 in New York ) was an American piano maker of German origin, his maiden name was Friedrich Matuschek.

He had the German Worms and in the United States in New York City and in New Haven (Connecticut) worked during the second half of the 19th century. His name survived with various piano manufacturers until the 1950s and was registered as an independent trademark in 2005 and 2008.

Worms

Frederick Mathushek was born in Mannheim in the Grand Duchy of Baden on June 9, 1814. He made a up to the age of 17 vocational training as a piano builder . He then went on a hike in various piano factories in Germany, Austria , Russia and also in Paris to acquire the knowledge that was necessary to be admitted to a master’s examination and then to be able to open his own piano manufacturing company as a master in Worms . His pianos were clearly influenced by his time in Paris with the piano maker Jean-Henri Pape .

New York, 1850s

Mathushek initially had a managerial position in Erard's London piano factory . In 1849 he emigrated to New York. There he worked for John B. Dunham, who was one of the first piano makers to introduce overstringing in America a few years earlier. Alfred Dolge wrote that in 1850 Mathushek perfected a simplified press by means of which piano hammers were felted. In 1851 he patented a method of crossing over a gray cast iron frame in table pianos in order to accommodate a larger number of strings with thicker diameters. The arrangement was intended to improve sound and stability, and the scale came to be known as the sweep scale because this scale moved the strings over the soundboard far more than was possible with conventional stringing methods.

Mathushek began building his own piano in New York in 1852. That year he was listed at 118 East 21st Street, but piano historians Daniel Spillane and Alfred Dolge wrote that he was hired in 1857 to do some of the designs by Spencer B. Driggs to put into a practicable form. Driggs had moved from Detroit to New York in 1856 after patenting his linguine , a device for repeating sound. He applied for a series of patents derived from violin construction to improve piano sound. The special feature was the installation of two independent soundboards, one of which served as the overall floor of the instrument instead of the heavy support structure usually found. Both floors were arched and connected by a sound bridge in order to improve the rigidity and the sound properties.

At the end of 1859 Mathushek was associated with Wellington Wells. They were jointly responsible for patents in piano and grand piano mechanics. These bass-crossed pianos had very tightly set strings that were at a sharp angle to the keyboard; Similarities could be seen with the double-strung saloon grand pianos by Chickering and Sons , which had been introduced in the early 1850s (now known as cocked hats ), and also small spinets , harpsichords , which had strings clamped on the bridges by means of agraffes . These clamped the strings so that the concave soundboard was pulled upwards.

Mathushek & Kuhner

In 1863 Mathushek was part of Mathushek & Kühner, in partnership with Leopold Kühner. They won a bronze medal for "Piano of New and Elegant Form" at the American Institute exhibition that year. The company was located at 34 Second Avenue in 1864 and 10 Second Avenue in 1866.

The Mathushek Piano Factory / Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company

In 1866, Morris Steinert, a newly enlisted music salesman in New Haven , Connecticut , persuaded Mathushek to move from New York to run a new piano factory called the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company.

Steinert and his investors soon withdrew from the group of companies, and ownership passed to Henry S. Parmelee , whose relative Spencer T. Parmelee from New Haven had patented the hollow dowels on the tuning pegs, individual pieces of wooden pipe that were inserted into openings in the cast frame to hold the tuning pegs in place of a one-piece sound post.

With this, almost all structural elements made of wood were banned from the square pianos; only cast iron formed the supporting structure from around 1862 and 1865. Mathushek's grandson described in a report for Music and Drama magazine in 1882 that Parmelee was involved in the company from the start and "controlled all voting rights except those that belonged to Mathushek".

Alfred Dolge , who had worked in this factory between 1867 and 1869, wrote that the newly built factory carried out a series of experiments on the construction of soundboards, and explained their importance for the constructions that were then carried out. However, radical string arrangements were also made in the Table pianos. Their tiny four feet high and 147 cm wide square piano, named Colibri , had won the top prize at the American Institute's show in 1867, and both this piano and the 208 cm long orchestral panel transverse grand piano used the full width of the soundboard instead of as in other conventional square pianos only the right part. They distributed the strings across the entire cast iron frame and soundboard. The equalizing scale , as they called it, claimed “to produce a sound volume and a beauty of tone that is otherwise only to be found in concert grand pianos”.

In 1871 the company also offered living room grand pianos (parlor grands) in “harp shape” as well as concert grand pianos, and within ten years a 175 cm long square piano and a high upright piano (“upright”) with tuning pegs were introduced to improve the mood keep in conventional pianos.

In 1880 Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. opened its own salesroom in New York at 23 East 14th Street , announcing that it had built and sold more than 5,000 pianos. In 1897 the factory was located on Washington Avenue and Brown Street in West Haven , Connecticut, and it was advertised to have sold more than 30,000 pianos.

The Parmelee Piano Works, where Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company made their instruments, had one of the first non-experimental sprinkler systems installed by M. Seward & Son of New Haven, based on the patented design by Henry S. Parmelee from 1874. Parmelee Licensed In 1879 the patent and improvements to it based on a percentage share in the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe. Henry S. Parmelee patented seven improvements for sprinklers between 1874 and 1882. He also received patents in 1884 for the construction of soundboards and in 1885 for the construction of upright piano cases, which built the central case part vertically on a kind of support base.

Parmelee died in 1902, but the company continued to operate at the same address. In 1912 Charles Jacob was president.

New York, 1870s

As described in the 1882 article by Music and Drama , Mathushek had returned to New York in 1870 and was associated with the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company in name only; Dolge dates this to a year later, when he was listed for unassigned patents, the purpose of which was to compensate for the bending load of string tension, and in connection with vertically arranged key levers for pianinos. In 1874 Mathushek dated David H. Dunham of Dunham & Sons, with whom he patented improvements to iron frames and soundpost bridges.

In 1877, the Mendelssohn Piano Company announced their last triple-stringed table pianos using "Mathushek's new duplex overstrung scale, the greatest improvement in piano making history," claiming to have received recommendations for the highest awards and honors available at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, where Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co. had pianos on display.

Mathushek & Son

In 1879 Frederick and Hugo Mathushek jr. a new arrangement of bar clamps in connection with a development to limit the vibrations of the anterior appendage lengths, which had already been introduced with a patent in 1860. The bridge arrangement, called the equilibre system , involved bending the strings alternately towards the soundboard and away from the soundboard to two different levels of attachment pins - a difference that should be up to 15 degrees to minimize and even out the pressure on the soundboard (a Angle, which is usually less than two degrees with conventional bar design with zigzag pins).

The following year, Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co. warned the public about "counterfeit pianos with its original brand name at auctions and elsewhere".

In 1881 "the only original Mathusheks with the Equilibre system" were advertised that they had been "invented and manufactured by the original Mathusheks in New York", and the public was informed that "Mathushek, New York" would be cast into the cast iron frame should, as a warning against pianos manufactured in West Haven , Connecticut under the same name.

From 1882 to 1886 the name was claimed by Mathushek & Kinkeldey at 210 East 129th Street, New York, a company founded by Frederick Mathushek's grandson. Victor Hugo Mathushek, who had his surname changed from Doehler to Mathushek in the spring of 1876 and who had business ties with Charles Kinkeldey, the former superintendent or general manager of (John B.) Dunham & Sons, who unexpectedly went bankrupt at the end of 1880 was. VH Mathushek became the sole owner of the company in 1886. This took on the name Mathushek & Son , with offices at 108 East 125th Street and 242-244 East 122nd Street. The company had assets of $ 35,000 in 1887, but in April 1888 the company was transferred to shareholders ("assignors").

Frederick Mathushek died on November 9, 1891 at 242 West 123rd Street, where he had lived with his grandson for five years. He was the superintendent of Mathushek & Son at 344 and 346 East 23rd Streets .

Victor Hugo Mathushek continued his grandfather's design ideas and received patents in 1891 and 1895 for soundboards (the Duplex Sounding Board ) and in 1896 for metal frames.

The Mathushek & Son factory and showroom were located on 1569 Broadway on the corner of 47th Street in New York around 1900, where they sold a range of small pianinos made by them, including the Apollo model, and later called the “Regal” Automatic pianos, and pianos from well-known manufacturers. In 1903 salesrooms were opened in Red Bank , New Jersey.

Jacob Brothers

In 1900 the piano makers and brothers Charles and C. Albert Jacob from Jacob Brothers, founded in New York in 1877, joined the Mathushek company as directors. CA Jacob was the chief financial officer. The company named $ 50,000 in capital with the tax authorities the following year. In 1908 James P. Beckwith was managing director.

Victor Hugo Mathushek died in 1910. In the following year the company belonged entirely to the Jacob brothers, as well as the piano construction company James & Holmstrom, the piano case construction company Wellington Piano Case Company and the keyboard manufacturer Abbott Piano Action Company.

Mathushek & Son was registered at 37 West 37th Street from approximately 1918 to 1930.

In 1930 Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company, which had closed its old Campbell Avenue factory in 1906, was located at 88 Elm Street, West Haven, and at 43 West 57th Street, New York.

In 1931 the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company brought out a spinet grand piano , a square piano that only required the “space of a lounge”. They picked up on the old Colibri design and used other wing and damper mechanisms based on a patent from Fernando A. Wessell, Red Bank, New Jersey in 1935.

C. Albert Jacob, president of both Jacob Brothers and Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co., died in 1940. He was followed by his sons C. Albert Jacob jr. as Vice President and former President of the Piano Manufacturers Association and Charles Hall Jacob.

Charles Hall Jacob died in 1953. In 1954 the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company was sold to Alexander P. Brown, an inventor who held nineteen patents covering spinet machine heads and cases. Manufacturing moved from 138th Street and Walton Avenue in the Bronx to the new address 4401 11th Street, Queens , Long Island City .

2005 until today

Burgett Brothers, Inc., owners of Mason & Hamlin and Sohmer & Co. , courted the name for pianos in 2005, but they gave up the trademark in 2007.

Geoffrey Sive from Woodbridge , Connecticut, who registered the name Gildemeester & Kroeger in 2006, another long-standing piano manufacturer, applied to use the name Mathushek in spring 2008.

Remarks

1. ↑ Spillane wrote that M. worked in all these cities, but Dolge, who worked for Mathushek from 1867 to 1869, wrote: “He traveled through Germany and Austria and ended up in Henri Pape's workshop in Paris before he returned to Worms. An octagonal square piano that he built in Worms was part of the Ibach Museum in Wuppertal-Barmen ”- “ Mathuschek hammer piano in the form of an octagonal tea table ” , Worms 1840
2. ↑ In June 1855, a piano was exhibited at 505 Broadway, New York, showing the Driggs' trailer strings - which cost approximately $ 50 to $ 75 additional costs, as did the tuning mechanism of befriended Detroit inventor Hubert Schonacker and his "octave scale," which was a direct predecessor of the modern duplex scale. In 1857, William Vincent Wallace organized the Wallace Pianoforte Company based on the promise of Driggs patent usability, but the company only appeared in the city directories for two years. In 1859 the Driggs inventions belonged to Driggs, Parmelee & Co., then the manufacturing rights were sold to Driggs Patent Piano Co. and passed on to Briggs & Tooker in 1862, who offered to improve worn pianos with their recently patented brackets. Then the rights belonged to JB Peck since 1862 and to the Driggs Piano Co. in 1864 before the name disappeared around 1870. ("Musical Gossip" New-York Musical Review and Gazette June 30, 1855, p. 210; January 24, 1857 p. 17; July 25, 1857; advertisements. New York Times September 28, 1850; February 2, 1860; February 20, 1862; October 10, 1864)
3. ↑ Later, around 1897, the Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. advertised as “founded in 1866”, however pianos later carried “estab. 1863 ”in the key flaps as well as in the cast frame.
4. ↑ No piano won a first prize. Pianos from Manner & Co., Union Piano, and Ouvrier & Sons for a high piano also won second prizes. American Institute Fair New York Times October 27, 1867
5. ↑ Victor Hugo Mathushek is named both as Mathushek's son and as his grandson. He was the son of Hermine Mathushek, born in Germany around 1835. He was responsible as a partner at Barlow & Mathushek, a piano shop on 694 Broadway, New York, together with the former portrait seller (portrait photographer?) Warren Sumner Barlow in 1869. Hugo and his sister Alma were in the directory along with Frederick and Johanna Mathushek (born around 1815 in Hessen) in New Haven in 1870. In 1880 Hermione married Edward Fischer, who would later be the conductor of the Harlem Conservatory of Music, and Alma lived with them in Manhattan. Hugo lived with them around 1900.
6. ↑ Wessell (January 5, 1877 -?) Was the son of Otto Wessel and was a partner in the keyboard factory Wessell, Nickel & Gross, all of which were former keyboard makers at Steinway who became self-employed in 1875. He acted as a finance professional after his father died in 1899. He was a co-inventor of an improvement in grand piano keyboards in 1909, which was assigned to WNG, and in 1920 and 1922 also patented a half-turn mechanism for machine-playing grand pianos that used a movable hammer rest bar. George Von Skal. History of German Immigration in the United States and Successful German-Americans and their Descendants . Frederick T. Smiley, New York, 1910. pp. 252-255.

literature

• Alfred Dolge Pianos and their Makers Covina Publishing Company, Covina, California. 1911. pp. 321-325.
• Daniel Spillane History of the American Pianoforte D. Spillane, New York. 1890. pp. 226-227.
• Jane Marlin, ed. Reminiscences of Morris Steinert GP Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1900. pp. 169-172.

Web links

• obituary , New York Times , November 11, 1891

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Spillane, p.183-184
2. ^ F. Mathushek. Stringing Pianos, United States Patent 8,470, October 28, 1851
3. ^ William Steinway, "American Musical Instruments" Chauncey M. Depew, ed. One Hundred Years of American Commerce vol. II, DO Haynes & Co., New York. 1895. p.511
4. ^ F. Mathushek. Piano action. United States Patent 26,550, December 20, 1859; F. Mathushek. Piano. United States Patent 30,279, October 2, 1860
5. ^ NE Michel Historical Pianos, Harpsichords and Clavichords Pico Rivera, California, 1970. "Orchestral harp shaped or 'cocked hat' grand piano", p.90 (also reproduced in Pierce Piano Atlas)
6. ^ "List of Premiums awarded by the Managers of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Fair of the American Institute, 1863 - Piano Fortes." Annual Report of the American Institute of the City of New York, for the years 1863, '64 Comstock & Cassidy, Albany. 1864 p.34
7. ^ Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory for 1864-'65 John F. Trow, New York 1864 p.60
8. ^ Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory for 1866-'67 John F. Trow, New York 1866.p.68
9. ^ ST Parmelee. Piano. United States Patent 35,703, June 24, 1862; ST parmelee. Piano. United States Patent 46,759, March 7, 1865
10. ^ Music and Drama August 26, 1882. pp. 21-22
11. ↑ Dolge, p.108-109
12. ^ "Norris & Soper" J. Timberlake, ed. Illustrated Toronto , Peter A. Gross, Toronto. 1877. p.360
13. ↑ advertisement Wisconsin Journal of Education new series, vol. 1. Atwood & Culver, Madison, 1871
14. ↑ advertisement Louisiana Journal of Education Seymour & Stevens, New Orleans, vol 3, no.8, Dec. 1881. p268
15. ↑ advertisement. Brooklyn Daily Eagle , March 17, 1880
16. ^ New Haven Directory , 1894
17. ↑ advertisement Brooklyn Daily Eagle March 7, 1897
18. ^ Dana Gorham Automatic Sprinkler Protection T. Groom & Co. 1914. p.326
19. ↑ Paula M. Stathakis, Grinnell / General Fire Extinguisher Company Complex Historical Context ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2005 
20. ↑ HS Parmelee. Piano sounding boards. United States Patent 301,068, June 24, 1884; HS Parmelee. Upright piano case. United States Patent 327,714, October 6, 1885 (an example is shown by Michel, "Mathushek Upright No. 19111", p.201)
21. ^ "Henry S. Parmelee Dies on His Yacht, the Alert," Brooklyn Daily Eagle . September 28, 1902
22. ^ F. Mathushek. Piano. United States Patent 113,073, March 28, 1871; F. Mathushek. Piano action. United States Patent 113,074, March 28, 1871 (an example is shown by Michel, "Mathushek small upright piano made in New York", p.176)
23. ^ F. Mathushek and DH Dunham. Piano forts. United States Patent 154,062, August 11, 1874
24. ↑ advertisement, The Phelps County [Missouri] New Era , April 7, 1877
25. ^ United States Centennial Commission International Exhibition 1876 Official Catalog part I, John R. Nagle and Company, Philadelphia, 1876. p.334
26. ^ F. Mathushek and H. Mathushek, Jr. Pianoforte. United States Patent 212,029, February 4, 1879
27. ↑ advertisement. Brooklyn Daily Eagle , March 17, 1880
28. ↑ advertisement. Business Directory, The Yale Banner , Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven. 1881. p.51
29. ^ "Names Changed" Laws of the State of New York, passed at the One Hundredth Session of the Legislature , Weed, Parsons and Company, Albany 1877, p.568
30. ^ "Mathushek & Kinkeldey" New York's Great Industries , Historical Publishing Co., New York. 1885. p.389
31. ^ "Failure of the Oldest Piano Manufacturing House in this Country," New York Times , December 3, 1880
32. ^ "Business Troubles" New York Times April 11, 1888
33. ^ Victor Hugo Mathushek, Piano-forte. United States Patent 447,963, March 10, 1891; VH Mathushek, Sounding Board for Stringed Instruments. United States Patent 534,900 February 26, 1895; VH Mathushek, Metallic Frame for Pianofortes. United States Patent 556,273, March 10, 1896
34. ↑ advertisement. Directory of Trained Nurses, Greater New York and Philadelphia , Cornell & Shober, New York. 1900. p. 232
35. ↑ Randall Gabrielan, Red Bank Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, 1998. p. 27
36. ^ Biographical Directory of the State of New York Biographical Directory Company New York 1900 p. 224
37. ^ The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the City of New York vol. XLVIX Trow Directory, Printing & Bookinding Co., New York 1901 p. 307
38. ^ The Trow (formerly Wilson's) Copartnership and Corporation Directory of the Boroughs of Manhattan and the City of New York 56th year Trow Directory, Printing & Bookinding Co., New York 1908 p. 512
39. ↑ Trade Notes Piano, Organ and Musical Instrument Workers' Official Journal vol. 12, no.2, March 1910 p. 5.
40. ^ "Mathushek & Son" 14 to 42 - 37th Street
41. ↑ Everett G. Hill A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County vol. I, The SJ Clarke Publishing Company, New York. 1918 p.316
42. ^ New Haven Companies by address 1912, 1930 (MS Excel; 84 kB) Historical New Haven Documents, Yale University
43. ↑ advertisement for spinet grand. undated, around 1935
44. ^ Craig H. Roell The Piano in America, 1890-1940 . University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1989. p.345
45. ^ Federal Trade Commission Decisions , United States Government Printing Office , Washington, DC 1939. p. 1151
46. ^ Obituary New York Times December 11, 1940
47. ^ Obituary New York Times June 9, 1953
48. ^ "Mathushek Piano Co. Sold" New York Times July 18, 1954.
49. ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 78724381, September 30, 2005
50. ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 78906510, June 13, 2006
51. ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 77370437, January 13, 2008