Frederick Mathushek

Frederick Mathushek (June 9, 1814 - November 9, 1891), was a piano maker working in Worms, in Rhineland, Germany and in the United States at New York City and New Haven, Connecticut during the second half of the nineteenth century. His name continued to be used by several different piano manufacturers through the 1950s, and was filed independently as a trademark for musical instruments in 2005 and 2008.

Worms

Frederick Mathushek was born in Mannheim, in Baden, June 9, 1814, and apprenticed with a pianomaker of that city until the age of 17, when he travelled visiting piano making facilities in Germany, Austria, Russia, and eventually Paris, before establishing his own workshop in Worms, where he built pianos influenced by those he had seen in the factory of Jean-Henri Pape. ref|pape

New York, 1850s

In 1849 Mathushek emigrated to New York (after holding a prominent position with Erard in London according to his obituary), and worked for John B. Dunham, who was one of the first piano manufacturers to introduce overstringing in America several years earlier. [Spillane, p.183-184] Alfred Dolge wrote Mathushek perfected a simplified press for applying felt covering to piano hammers in 1850, and in 1851 he patented a method for overstringing in cast iron frame square pianos to allow a greater number of strings with larger diameters. [F. Mathushek. Stringing Pianos, United States Patent 8,470, October 28, 1851] The arrangement was intended to improve tone and stability, and it became known as the "sweep scale" [William Steinway, "American Musical Instruments" Chauncey M. Depew, ed. "One Hundred Years of American Commerce" vol.II, D. O. Haynes & Co., New York. 1895. p.511] because it distributed the strings much wider upon the sounding board compared to more conventional methods of stringing.

Mathushek started his own workshop in New York in 1852, and that year listed his address at 118 East 21st street, but piano historians Daniel Spillane and Alfred Dolge wrote that by 1857 he had been engaged to bring some of Spencer B. Driggs' designs to practical form. Driggs had moved to New York from Detroit, Michigan in 1856 after patenting his "linguine" repeating attachment, and campaigned to improve the piano through a series of patents he concentrated around the construction of violins. The identifying feature was the use of two un-barred sounding boards, one of which was meant to form the bottom of the instrument instead of the usual heavy wooden base or frame, and they were intended to be bent into arches to increase their stiffness and coupled using a sound post.ref|driggs

By late 1859 Mathushek was associated with Wellington Wells, and coassigned him patents for a repetition action and grand pianos. [F. Mathushek. Piano Action. United States Patent 26,550, December 20, 1859; F. Mathushek. Piano. United States Patent 30,279, October 2, 1860] These overstrung pianos had closely spaced strings arranged at sharp angles to the keyboard following the same principles as the bichord parlor grands introduced in America by Chickering and Sons in the early 1850s (now known as "cocked hats") as well as spinet harpsichords, and were also meant to have "string clamp" bridge agraffes deflecting the strings in order to draw the concave sounding board upwards. [N. E. 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)] Mathushek & Kühner were awarded a bronze medal for a "piano of new and elegant shape" at the 1863 American Institute fair. ["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]

Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company

In 1866 Morris Steinert, newly established as a music seller in New Haven, Connecticut, convinced Mathushek move from New York to superintend a piano manufacturing company organized as the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company.ref|date Steinert and his investors soon backed out of the concern, and ownership of the company passed to Henry S. Parmelee, whose relative Spencer T. Parmelee of New Haven had patented the "tuning pin bushing", individual tubular wooden plugs pressed into a sockets in the cast frame to hold the tuning pins instead of a single structural wooden wrest plank bolted to the frame, and iron frame squares almost entirely lacking wood structural components in 1862 and 1865. [S. T. Parmelee. Piano. United States Patent 35,703, June 24, 1862; S. T. Parmelee. Piano. United States Patent 46,759, March 7, 1865]

Alfred Dolge, who had worked at the factory between 1867 and 1869, wrote the newly formed company conducted a series of experiments in sounding board construction, and reported their preference for the now conventional construction, [Dolge, p.108-109] but they also introduced radical string arrangements in square pianos. Their tiny 4 feet 10 inch long (147 cm) "Colibri" had earned the highest awards for any piano at the 1867 American Institute fair,ref|amins and both it and their 6 foot 10 inch long (208 cm) "Orchestral" made use of the entire sounding board instead of only the right hand side as in conventional square pianos. This combination of straight bridges - the "linear bridge" - and the distribution of strings across the sounding board and iron frame - the "equalizing scale", they claimed, produced "a volume and beauty of tone found elsewhere only in concert grands." ["Norris & Soper" J. Timberlake, ed. "Illustrated Toronto", Peter A. Gross, Toronto. 1877. p.360] By 1871 the company also offered "harp form" parlor grands as well as concert grands, [advertisement "Wisconsin Journal of Education" new series, vol.1. Atwood & Culver, Madison, 1871] and within ten years introduced a 5 foot 9 inch (175 cm) long square, and an upright incorporating their tuning pin bushings for the purpose of holding tune better than more conventional designs. [advertisement "Louisiana Journal of Education" Seymour & Stevens, New Orleans, vol 3, no.8, Dec. 1881. p268]

In 1880 the Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. established their own New York warerooms at at 23 East 14th street, and advertised having more than 5,000 in use. [advertisement. "Brooklyn Daily Eagle", March 17, 1880] By 1897 their factory was located at Washington avenue, at the corner of Brown in West Haven, ["New Haven Directory", 1894] and they advertised having sold more than 30,000 pianos. [advertisement "Brooklyn Daily Eagle" March 7, 1897]

The Parmelee Piano Works where Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company's instruments were made had one of the first non-experimental fire sprinklers, installed by M. Seward & Son, of New Haven based on the design patented by Henry S. Parmelee in 1874. [Dana Gorham "Automatic Sprinkler Protection" T. Groom & Co. 1914. p.326] Parmelee licensed the patent and improvements on a royalty basis by 1879 to the Providence Steam and Gas Pipe. [Paula M. Stathakis, [http://www.cmhpf.org/Surveys&rGrinnell.htm Grinnell/General Fire Extinguisher Company Complex Historical Context] , 2005] Henry S. Parmelee patented seven improvements for sprinklers between 1874 and 1882, and also received patents for sounding board construction in 1884 and upright piano cases in 1885, with the central part of the case angled to form a music rest. [H. S. Parmelee. Piano Sounding Boards. United States Patent 301,068, June 24, 1884; H. S. Parmelee. Upright Piano Case. United States Patent 327,714, October 6, 1885 (an example is shown by Michel, "Mathushek Upright No. 19111", p.201)]

Parmelee died in 1902, ["Henry S. Parmelee Dies on His Yacht, the Alert" "Brooklyn Daily Eagle". September 28, 1902] but the company continued manufacturing at the same address. By 1912 Charles Jacob was president.

New York, 1870s

By 1871 Frederick Mathushek had left the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company and moved back to New York, where he received patents for compensating wires arranged to counteract the bending strain of the main strings, and bent key levers in upright pianos, [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)] and by 1874 he was associated with David H. Dunham, of Dunham & Sons, with whom he patented improvements in iron frames and wrestplank bridges. [F. Mathushek and D. H. Dunham. Piano-Fortes. United States Patent 154,062, August 11, 1874]

In 1877 the Mendelssohn Piano Company advertised their latest trichord squares used "Mathushek's new Duplex Overstrung Scale, the greatest improvement in the history of Piano making," and claimed to have received unanimous recommendation for the highest awards at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, [advertisement, "The Phelps County [Missouri] New Era", April 7, 1877] where the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company had also exhibited pianos. [United States Centennial Commission "International Exhibition 1876 Official Catalogue" part I, John R. Nagle and Company, Philadelphia, 1876. p.334]

Mathushek & Son

In 1879 Frederick and Hugo Mathushek, jr. patented a new arrangement of bridge agraffes combined with a development of the front terminations introduced in the 1860 patent. The bridge arrangement, styled the "equilibre system", involved deflecting the strings alternately toward and away from the soundboard to two different levels of hitch pins - a difference claimed to be as much as 15 degrees in one advertisement - in order to minimize the downward strain applied to the sounding board (which is usually less than 2 degrees with conventional pinned bridges). [F. Mathushek and H. Mathushek, Jr. Pianoforte. United States Patent 212,029, February 4, 1879]

The following year, the Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. cautioned the public against "bogus instruments represented as genuine Mathushek Pianos, at auction sales and elsewhere." [advertisement. "Brooklyn Daily Eagle", March 17, 1880]

In 1881 "the only genuine Mathushek with the equilibre system" was advertised having been "invented and manufactured by the original Mathusheks in New York", and the public was informed that "Mathushek, New York" should be cast in the iron frame and warned against pianos manufactured in West Haven, Connecticut under the same name. [advertisement. Business Directory, "The Yale Banner", Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, New Haven. 1881. p.51]

From 1882 to 1886 the name was claimed by Mathushek & Kinkeldey, at 210 East 129th street, New York, which had been founded by Frederick Mathushek's grandsonref|hugo Victor Hugo Mathushek and who was joined by Charles Kinkeldey, the former superintendent for (John B.) Dunham & Sons, ["Mathushek & Kinkeldey" "New York's Great Industries", Historical Publishing Co., New York. 1885. p.389] which had failed unexpectedly toward the end of 1880. ["Failure of the Oldest Piano Manufacturing House in this Country" "New York Times, December 3, 1880] V. H. Mathushek became sole owner of the company in 1886 and the firm became Mathushek & Son, located at 108 East 125th street and 242-244 East 122nd street and showed $35,000 in assets in 1887, but in April, 1888 the company was turned over to assignors. ["Business Troubles" "New York Times" April 11, 1888]

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

Victor Hugo Mathushek continued to develop designs like his grandfather's, and received patents for soundboard construction in 1891 (the "duplex sounding board") and 1895, and metallic frames in 1896. [Victor Hugo Mathushek, Piano-forte. United States Patent 447,963, March 10, 1891 ; V. H. Mathushek, Sounding Board for Stringed Instruments. United States Patent 534,900 February 26, 1895 ; V. H. Mathushek, Metallic Frame for Pianofortes. United States Patent 556,273, March 10, 1896] Mathushek & Son's factory and warerooms were at Broadway and 47th street, New York in 1900, [advertisement. "Directory of Trained Nurses, Greater New York and Philadelphia", Cornell & Shober, New York. 1900. p.232] where they sold a series of small upright pianos of their own manufacture, as well as Apollo, and later Regal players, and pianos by more famous manufacturers, and in 1903 they opened warerooms in Red Bank, New Jersey. [Randall Gabrielan, "Red Bank" Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC, 1998. p.27]

By 1911 Mathushek & Son was owned by Charles Jacob and C. Albert Jacob, who had founded the Jacob Brothers piano company in 1877, and who also owned James & Holmstrom as well as the Wellington Piano Case Company and Abbott Piano Action Company. Mathushek & Son was located at 37 West 37th St. from about 1918 to 1930. ["Mathushek & Son" [http://www.14to42.net/37street2.5.html 14 to 42 - 37th Street] ]

Jacob brothers

By 1930 the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company was located 88 Elm Street, West Haven, [ [http://www.library.yale.edu/thecitycourse/Data_Tables/Commerce/Businesses_New_Haven_1913_1998_by_product_address_CEO.xls New Haven Companies by address 1912, 1930] (MS Excel) Historical New Haven Documents, Yale University] and 43 West 57th street, New York. [advertisement for spinet grand. undated, ca.1935]

In 1931 [Craig H. Roell "The Piano in America, 1890-1940". University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1989. p.345] the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company brought out "Spinet Grand" square pianos which occupied "only the space of a lounge" ["Federal Trade Commission Decisions", Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 1939. p.1151] updated the old colibri design and substituted current grand piano actions and dampers, based on a patent issued to Fernando A. Wessell, of Red Bank, New Jersey in 1935.ref|wessell

C. Albert Jacob, president of both Jacob Brothers and the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co. died 1940 [obituary "New York Times" December 11, 1940] and was succeeded by his sons C. Albert Jacob jr., vice president of the firm and former president of the National Piano Manufacturers Association, and Charles Hall Jacob.

Charles Hall Jacob died in 1953 [obituary "New York Times" June 9, 1953] and in 1954 the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company was sold to Alexander P. Brown, an inventor who held 19 patents for spinet piano actions and cases, and production moved to from 138th street and Walton avenue, Bronx to 4401 11th street, Long Island City. ["Mathushek Piano Co. Sold" "New York Times" July 18, 1954]

2005 to present

Burgett Brothers, Inc., owners Mason & Hamlin and Sohmer & Co. filed to use the name for pianos in 2005 but abandoned the trademark in 2007. [United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 78724381, September 30, 2005]

Geoffrey Sive, of Woodbridge, Connecticut, who in 2006 also registered the name Gildemeester & Kroeger, another long defunct piano firm, [United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 78906510, June 13, 2006] filed to use the name for pianos in early 2008. [United States Patent and Trademark Office, Serial Number 77370437, January 13, 2008]

Notes

# Spillane wrote he worked in all these cities but Dolge, who worked under Mathushek between 1867 and 1869, wrote "he traveled though Germany and Austria, and finally landed in Henri Pape's shop at Paris" before returning to Worms. A table shaped piano he built at Worms was part of the Ibach Museum at Barmen - [http://www.historische-daten.de/projekte/museum/instmus.htm "Mathuschek-Hammerklavier in Form eines achteckigen Teetischs"] , Worms 1840
# William Vincent Wallace organized the Wallace Pianoforte Company based on the promise of these inventions, but by 1859 Driggs' inventions were owned by Driggs, Parmelee & Co., and then the manufacturing interests sold to Driggs Patent Piano Co., and transferred by 1862 to Briggs & Tooker, who offered to resurrect worn out pianos with their newly patented string clamps, J. B. Peck in 1862, and the Driggs Piano Co. in 1864, before the name disappeared about 1870. (advertisements. "New York Times" September 28, 1850; February 2, 1860; February 20, 1862; October 10, 1864)
# As late as 1897 Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. advertised "established 1866" but later pianos have "estab. 1863" in the label as well as cast into the iron frames.
#No pianos won first premium and second premiums were also awarded to Manner & Co., for the Union piano, and Ouvrier & Sons, for an upright piano. "American Institute Fair" "New York Times" October 27, 1867
# Victor Hugo Mathushek is referred to as both Mathushek's son and grandson. He was son of Haermine Mathushek, born in Germany about 1835, and who was listed partners in Barlow & Mathushek, a piano store at 694 Broadway, New York, with former portrait seller Warren Sumner Barlow in 1869. Hugo and his sister Alma were listed living with Frederick and Johanna Mathushek (born ca. 1815 in Hesse) in New Haven in 1870. By 1880 Haermine was married to Edward Fischer, the future conductor of the Harlem Conservatory of Music, and Alma lived with them in Manhattan. Hugo lived with them by 1900.
# Wessell (January 5, 1877-) was son of Otto Wessel and took charge of the Wessell, Nickel & Gross piano action factory, serving as treasurer after his father died in 1899. He copatented an improvement in grand actions in 1909, which was assigned to WNG, and also patented half blow mechanisms for player grand pianos using movable hammer rest rails in 1920 and 1922. George Von Skal. "History of German Immigration in the United States and Successful German-Americans and their Descendants". Frederick T. Smiley, New York, 1910. p.252-255

References

*Alfred Dolge "Pianos and their Makers" Covina Publishing Company, Covina, California. 1911. p.321-325
*Daniel Spillane "History of the American Pianoforte" D. Spillane, New York. 1890. p.226-227
*Jane Marlin, ed. "Reminiscences of Morris Steinert" G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1900. p.169-172
* [http://www.historische-daten.de/projekte/museum/matusch.htm obituary ] , "New York Times", November 11, 1891

ee also

*Development of the modern piano
*Innovations in the piano