1923, Brasteds moved to new premises at Hermitage Road, Harringay where they remained for 47 years! Production levels steadily increased from perhaps 50 pianos per week in 1920 up to nearly 200 pianos per week by the late 1930s.
Friday 19 November 2021
Eavestaff Pianos
1923, Brasteds moved to new premises at Hermitage Road, Harringay where they remained for 47 years! Production levels steadily increased from perhaps 50 pianos per week in 1920 up to nearly 200 pianos per week by the late 1930s.
Wednesday 17 November 2021
Chappell Pianos
Saturday 13 November 2021
Danemann
In 1934, an agreement between the Halifax based firm of Poulmann & Son, and the Danemann Co. whereby all the Poulmann designs, jigs etc. were moved to the Danemann factory and Poulmann pianos would now be made in London.
Thursday 14 October 2021
Samick Pianos
Hyo Ick Lee established the Samick Piano Company in South Korea in 1958. At the start conditions in the country were difficult but, he built his pianos using imported parts. As circumstances improved during the 1960s Hyo Ick Lee was soon exporting his pianos around the world.
Very quickly, Samick became one of the largest piano manufacturers in the world. Naturally, they were soon making their own parts and able to oversee every aspect of production and closely monitor the finished product.
European pianos have always been revered as the ideal blend of build-quality and tone, so, during the 1980s, Samick appointed Klaus Fenner, a German piano designer to rework the designs of the Samick pianos.
In 1992, because the labour costs in Korea were becoming ever more expensive, they opened a factory in Indonesia. The mid 1990s proved to be very troublesome. The huge and speedy expansion of the company at a time of economic hardship proved unsustainable and the company was forced into bankruptcy in 1996.
However, they were able to dispose of the non-profitable business ventures and most of the debt, so that they began once again to report a profit. In 2002, a consortium of Korean businessmen acquired Samick and cleared all of its debt and by 2006 all production had been moved to the factory in Indonesia.
©Steve Burden
Monday 11 October 2021
Petrof Pianos
Saturday 2 October 2021
Ivers & Pond
William H Ivers started making pianos in 1872 and clearly his pianos were substantial enough to earn a reputation for robust reliability. With Handel Pond the Ivers & Pond Piano Company was established in 1880 and based in Boston, Massachusetts while the factory was at Cambridgeport.
Known for their enviable build quality Ivers & Pond pianos were the choice of many colleges and schools and of course the private buyers who loved them for the elaborately striking and luxuriant casework.
The insides of the pianos were no less well put together - said to be the equal in design and excellence of manufacture of any of the many big makers in America at the time.
Their range of pianos went from baby grands up to the concert grand, Uprights of course and even player pianos. Universally respected and loved for their pleasing tone quality.
Ivers & Pond were consolidated into the Aeolian-American Corporation. The Ivers & Pond pianos continued to be made by Aeolian until the 1980s
The Aeolian Corporation was established by William Tremaine in 1887. He manufactured mechanical self-playing organs, later becoming the Aeolian Company sometime after 1895. Aeolian became a vast enterprise on the popularity of the player piano.
Aeolian controlled many piano companies and was manufacturing pianos and organs in factories across America and in Europe. In 1932 it merged with the American Piano Corporation. Up until closing in 1985, Aeolian manufactured pianos using names from the many piano companies they controlled.
©Steve Burden