Petrof - A Short History

Antonin Petrof studied the art of piano making with his uncle, Jan Heitzmann in Vienna. Returning to Bohemia in 1864 established the Petrof Piano Company and began building pianos. The following year his father’s joinery behind the Cathedral of Svaty Duch was repurposed to make it more suited to building pianos.

In 1874 Petrof pianos moved to larger facilities for manufacturing operations, eventually producing their own keyboards and actions. Business was steadily gathering momentum so that in 1894, they began exporting their pianos abroad, and were able to set up a service centre and warehouse in Vienna.

Antonín Petrof was appointed in 1899 to be the court piano maker of Austria-Hungary. The growth of the business continue over the next 20 years so that Petrof expanded their foreign sales - selling to Japan, China, Australia and South America.

1928, Petrof together with the American company Steinway opened a subsidiary in London. When Petrof pianos won the gold medal at the World Exhibition 1934 in Brussels, the Petrof factory employed about 400 people. 

The 100,000th Petrof piano was produced in 1963 and has their research centre for continued scientific development. After a period of state ownership the company was privatised in 1998 and was returned to family control in 2001. 

© Steve Burden

Nordiska - A Short history

Nordiska Pianofabriken was founded around 1921 in Stockholm by Emanuel Lager. In 1926 the factory moved its operations to Vetlanda. Their pianos justifiably earned wide recognition in Europe for consistently reliable quality pianos. Later, in 1952, premises were built on Brogårdsgatan where the business was conducted until the end of 1988. 

The involvement of German piano designer Dotzek from 1958 boosted further the design and manufacturing processes - all of which resulted in their being rated by the German trade magazine ‘Music Instrument Industry’, in the top 10 piano makers globally.

The workers enjoyed working at the factory - so much effort was made to keep industrial relations in good shape! Harmony in the work force always bodes well - particularly in a piano factory! 

In 1980, Emanuel's son Birger Lager and his sons Kennet and Torbjörn became sole owners of the business. About this time there were more than 120 employees producing about 4,000 pianos a year. 

From 1967 to 1988, some Nordiska instruments were also manufactured by Nordiska Piano KG in Kronach, Upper Franconia.

Alas! like so many other European manufacturers, Nordiska could not compete with the Asian manufacturers, where production costs were significantly less. Sadly production in Sweden ceased around 1988 when the Dongbei Piano Group of China acquired the company's assets.

The scale designs and manufacturing equipment was relocated to the Yingkou Piano Factory in Liaoning, China. Producing the Nordiska Pianos in China, Nordiska retained its high European quality standards while benefiting from lower production costs in China. 

© Steve Burden

Ivers & Pond - A Short History

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

Eavestaff - A Short History

The beginnings of Eavestaff pianos are somewhat vague and uncertain, but it is likely, as with so many manufacturers of the time, they built and supplied pianos to the music trade. This simply means that finding an early Eavestaff piano with their own name on the front is very unlikely.

The first factory was in Euston Road but moved to Salusbury Road about 1911. Clearly, W.G. Eavestaff had a very keen eye for detail and quality control - his devotion to excellence in piano building established a reputation for reliability.

W.G. Eavestaff died in 1912 leaving his 2 sons. The older, William, died in 1917 and the younger brother, Frank eventually sold the business in 1920 to H.F. and R.A. Brasted. It is thought Frank Eavestaff had some involvement for a while but eventually retired to Hastings. 

Henry Brasted had been making pianos since 1870. Like Eavestaff, his pianos were mostly trade pianos. Sadly, Henry was to die in 1908. His sons Henry, Charles, Frederick, Robert, Albert and his daughter Hilda were to carry the business forward. By the 1930s the business was known as Brasted Brothers Ltd.

The 1920s was not an easy time for Brasteds to take on the Eavestaff name. A number of other proud, established piano makers of the time were having to close their doors. Post war difficulties of supply and skilled labour were tough enough but to sell the finished product at a time of austerity was a bold strategy with an eye to the future.

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.

The Minipiano was made at Hermitage Road and sold under the Eavestaff name. The mini generated strong sales due to small size and its relative affordability when compared to the more traditional uprights of the time. Today, the Minipiano is not very much liked by tuners and technicians - certainly the early ones - but if you can find a good example of one of the later models, and one that works well, they are easy to play and have a sweet, very musical tone. Alas not many good examples survive! 

© Steve Burden

Danemann - A Short History

The beginnings of the Danemann Piano Co. is a refreshingly different story from the usual. W. Danemann was not a talented piano builder who wanted to set up his own factory. W. Danemann was a young German Architect who had taken British Citizenship sometime during the 1890s. He was in business as a furniture maker at Alderney Street, Pimlico.

His furniture generated wide approval and respect, so that a firm of piano makers asked him to design piano cases for a series of pianos. He gave the work his customary detailed attention and produced the commissioned drawings and submitted them along with his account for the work. Meanwhile the company had gone out of business and he was never paid.

After meeting with the liquidators, he agreed to buy the failed business for a price that reflected his unpaid-for work. With no prior knowledge of piano construction, he, almost overnight, made himself a piano manufacturer.

W. Danemann established the business in 1893 at Northampton Street, Islington. For the first 55 years of business they made pianos for the music trade. Music shops would put their own name on the fallboard, a very common practice in the early 1900s.

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. 

The Poulmann pianos were highly regarded - especially the stringing scale, which became the template for the Danemann pianos. After the war, Danemanns decided no longer to make pianos for the trade but rather to make pianos with their own name on them. 

During the 1970s, 80% of their output was pianos for schools! These solidly-built, large oak pianos were ruggedly reliable and were by far, better than any of the pianos made for schools at the time.

1982 Tom Danemann sold the business to Broadwoods but even they could not make the Northampton Street premises profitable. July 1984 the Official Receiver was called in. And then the Gardner family from Cardiff offered to buy the Danemann name, designs and goodwill. Everything was transported to Cardiff and production continued there until 1994. 

© Steve Burden

Chappell - A Short history

It was Mrs. Emily Chappell who in about 1840 decided to look into piano manufacture. She had a small factory built off the Charing Cross Road. A Mr. Smith was given the job of organising the new premises, hiring and firing, buying materials and building pianos to meet the growing demand. Immediately the pianos were finished they were taken off to be sold by Chappell and Co. Very sadly, only 20 years later, a devastating fire destroyed the factory, production there ceased and nothing more is heard of Mr. Smith.

Around 1865 a new factory was built in Camden Town. For nearly 30 years, the new premises were managed and run by a Mugridge & Ulph but in 1893 a Reinhold Friedrich Glandt was appointed manager and by 1900 the piano making part of the business was renamed Chappell Piano Company Ltd. R.F. Glandt, while remaining factory manager became a director.

The first World War took the lives of many of the skilled Chappell workers - a loss that understandably dampened spirits at the works. By the 1920s, average weekly production was about 20 pianos and in the 1930s the average was 16. 

From 1942 until 1947, because of the war, production was reduced to roughly 2 piano per week! The first decade or so of the post war period production crept up to about 6 per week. Businesses thrive on big numbers so these dwindling figures paint a picture of gloomy decline!

Perhaps part of the reason is that Chappell were primarily a music publishing business. Piano manufacturing was deemed very much, a lower priority. In the 1970s, Chappells was taken over by Philips Electrical who took the immediate decision permanently to turn off the 'lights' at the piano factory. 

© Steve Burden