JD Philipps

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JD Philipps (1846-1926)
A piano made by JD Philipps AG with the lid open. Built between 1911 and 1920
JD Philipps & Söhne AG, Frankfurt music works factory
Former JD Philipps & Söhne AG, Frankfurter Musikwerke-Fabrik, rebuilt and renovated
Share in Philipps AG, Frankfurter Musikwerke-Fabrik

Johann Daniel Phillips (born May 2, 1846 in Bromskirchen , † 21 October 1926 in Klein Schwalbach ) founded in 1886 in Frankfurt , the Frankfurter Orchestrion- & Piano Instrument Factory JD Phillips , the pianos and mechanical musical instruments created.

Life

Philipps began his career as a manufacturer of musical instruments at the age of 23. As a commissioned work, he made a single, pen roller-controlled orchestrion for a hotel in Frankfurt am Main. He later settled in Vöhrenbach in the Black Forest , where Michael Welte also had his Orchestrion production. The connection between Welte and Philipps is unclear, however.

In 1886 the Frankfurt Orchestrion & Piano-Instrumenten-Fabrik J. D. Philipps was established, and from then on the company was based in Frankfurt. At first, like in many other factories, instruments that were controlled with so-called pin rollers were still manufactured .

It was not until 1903 that Philipps presented a new pneumatic instrument that was controlled by the piano rolls introduced by Welte in 1883 . This model was called Pianella . The company then called itself Pianella Musikwerke .

Later the models Philipps-Jazzband Orchestrion and Philipps-Paganini were added. Philipps was one of the first to produce an automatic change of piano rolls.

With the revolver magazine, patented in 1905 and developed by the Philipps employee Leopold King, up to 12 piano rolls could be inserted and played back depending on your choice. The company was now called Frankfurter Musik-Werke Fabrik JD Philipps und Söhne .

The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company from the USA was also interested in Orchestrion models from Germany. Philipps and Wurlitzer negotiated a cooperation and from then on Wurlitzer sold the considerable number of more than 1,000 Philipps instruments under the Wurlitzer brand in America. Philipps also supplied Wurlitzer with orchestrion parts for their own production.

The different models were called: Pianella-Corona, Brillant, Spezial, Mandolino, Caecilia, Mandola, Victoria, Celesta and many more. The cases of these instruments were carved, painted, illuminated and mirrored. These lovingly designed orchestrion cases for Philipps instruments were particularly appreciated by customers.

Company label in a piano

Philipps was obviously quite successful and doing good business with the orchestras and electric pianos .

In 1908, Philipps also launched a reproduction piano called Duca . However, the instrument could not prevail against the competition from Hupfeld and Welte and remained a niche product. Philipps-Duca instruments were very solid and technically excellent, significantly more complicated than the Welte instruments, but they use the same reproduction system (presumably under license from Welte). The repertoire of recordings was relatively limited, the first-class pianists were mostly already represented at Welte and some at Hupfeld. With a few exceptions, the Philipps recordings were therefore played by second- to third-class pianists, and popular music took up a large part. Thus, the instruments were often, atypical for reproduction pianos, also used as entertainment instruments in restaurants and provided with coin boxes for the wall.

A company catalog published in 1911/1912 under the name Pianella-Musikwerke shows the entire range of companies. This consisted of classic fairground with weight lift and pin roll , Pianetta called pneumatic fairground with music rolls operated home Pianella called mandolins -Pianos, artificial pianos Pianella-A , some with xylophone . He also shows the Philipps duplex piano for the cinematograph , a piano that is combined with a harmonium , as well as the Philipps reproduction piano Pianella concert piano for artist roles. A water motor is also offered to operate the instruments without electricity. Based on the range on offer, one can conclude that Philipps produced less for private households than for the catering and entertainment industry. Like many others in the industry, Philipps was now expanding very quickly. Business in America was going very well, even if changing customer tastes required ever faster model changes.

For a long time the repertoire of the Philipps Duca piano rolls was underestimated compared to other manufacturers such as Welte and Hupfeld. In the meantime, however, it has moved more into the focus of research. One of the largest collections of original Philipps-DUCARTIST reproduction rolls with almost 1000 titles exists in the Goethe University in Frankfurt, together with a fully restored Philipps-DUCARIST-Feurich piano.

Decline

In 1923, during the inflation , Philipps bought the Berlin family business Frati & Co. of the Italian-born organ builder Bacigalupo , which also made self-playing musical instruments. On January 1, 1925, the company merged with Wilhelm Arnold AG, Hanauer Strasse in Aschaffenburg . They shifted the focus of their production to the manufacture of cinema organs and various electric pianos. From 1930 a number of church organs were also built for the Lower Franconian area, such as B. 1934 for the St. Nicholas Church of Wörth.

In 1927 Philipps Akt.-Ges. in Frankfurt a. M.-West company has already bought five large factories because, contrary to all common sense, companies were still being taken over from the declining mechanical entertainment music industry around the world. Cinema organs were also manufactured at short notice . As early as 1929, one factory after the other was closed again until only the factory in Aschaffenburg that Arnold had taken over remained. In 1932, the Philipps AG Aschaffenburg piano and organ works still offered pianos and grand pianos from the brands Philipps, Arnold, Bülow and Baldur. Bülow in particular was a successful trademark (sales name) of the Wilhelm ARNOLD piano factory in Aschaffenburg (1886–1933). The trademark was registered on May 3, 1911.

A short time later, the JD Philipps company disappeared completely from the market.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Appreciation on the occasion of the sudden death of the company founder Johann Daniel Rhilipps
  2. ↑ Empire Pat. No. 169879, mechanical-pneumatic plaything filed on March 7, 1905 issued April 18, 1906
  3. ^ The Orchestrion Builders , May 25, 2007
  4. ↑ Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau , 1907/08, Volume 28, Issue 35, p. 1208
  5. ^ "The new organ from 1934 in St. Nikolaus" ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau , Volume 52, Leipzig, 1931-32, No. 8, January 1932, p. 166