Here's something I had never seen before. Tiny metal grand piano stamped Lyons & Healy Chicago on the front above the keyboard. On the bottom it is stamped Rehderger Mfg. Co. Chicago. As I have mentioned in other posts, for most of the 20th century Chicago was the center of musical instrument manufacturing and retail business in the United States. In the loop alone were over 100 music stores, some buildings had 20-30 stores in them. Everything from stringed instruments, horns and pianos were made in Chicago. This is the first salesman's sample for a baby grand that I have ever seen. They marketed it as an apartment size grand piano. This piece is only about 4" x 3 1/2" x 3" and is in it's original brown paint. Condition is excellent. It is available for purchase here
Click below for the history of Lyon & Healy.
"Lyon & Healy is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. Their Chicago headquarters and manufacturing facility contains a showroom and concert hall. George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy began the company in 1864 as a sheet music shop. By the end of the 19th century, they manufactured a wide range of musical instruments—including guitars, mandolins, banjos, and various brass and percussion instruments.
Company letters and trade catalogs don't provide exact dates that would reveal when Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments. An article in the Musical Courier states that Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments in 1885. Clearly, Lyon & Healy was making fretted string instruments in the 1880s, with Washburn (guitars, mandolins, banjos, and zithers) as their premier line. By the 1900s, if not earlier, Lyon & Healy might well have been manufacturing bowed string instruments.
Lyon & Healy also made various percussion instruments. Later, Lyon & Healy began manufacturing brass instruments, possibly as early as the 1890s. Lyon & Healy also repaired instruments, and offered engraving services. Complicating matters still further, Lyon & Healy engraved instruments that it retailed but did not actually manufacture. In its 1892 catalog, it claimed that it manufactured 100,000 instruments annually.
Lyon retired in 1889, and Healy died in 1905.
Lyon & Healy built their first harp in 1889. Healy wanted to develop a harp better suited to the rigors of the American climate than available European models. They successfully produced a harp notable for its strength, pitch reliability, and freedom from unwanted vibration. Previously, most harps in North America where made by small groups of craftsmen in France, England, Ireland, or Italy.
In 1890, Lyon & Healy introduced the Style 23 Harp, still a popular and recognizable design. It has 47 strings, highly decorative floral carving on the top of the column, base, and feet, and a fleur de lis pattern at the bottom of the column. It is available in a gold version. It is 74 inches (190 cm) tall, and weighs about 37 kilograms (82 lb). Lyon & Healy produces one of the most ornate and elaborate harps in the world, the Louis XV, which includes carvings of leaves, flowers, scrolls, and shells along its neck and kneeblock, as well the soundboard edges.
In the 1890s the company—which used the slogan,"Everything in
music"—began building pipe organs. In 1894 Robert J. Bennett came to
Lyon & Healy from the Hutchens company of Boston to head their organ
department. The largest surviving Lyon & Healy pipe organ is at the
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica in Chicago. It is a large organ of four manuals and 57 ranks of pipes.
They also made small pipe organs. An example survives at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aspen Colorado. It is a two manual tracker with a 30 note straight pedalboard and 7 ranks. It is believed to have been built around 1900, and can still be pumped by hand.
By the 1900s, Lyon & Healy was one of the largest music
publishers in the world, and was a major producer of musical
instruments. However, In late 1920s, Lyon & Healy sold its brass
musical instrument manufacturing branch (see "New Langwill Index"). In
the 1970s, the firm concentrated solely upon making and selling harps.
In 1928, Lyon & Healy introduced one of the most unusual harps ever mass-produced, the Salzedo Model. The company designed it in collaboration with the harpist Carlos Salzedo. It an Art Deco style instrument that incorporates bold red and white lines on the soundboard to create a stylized and distinct appearance.
In the 1960s, Lyon & Healy introduced a smaller lever harp, the Troubadour, a 36-string harp for young beginners with smaller hands, and for casual players. This harp stands 65.5 inches (166 cm), and weighs 17 kilograms (37 lb).
In the late 1970s, Steinway & Sons (then owned by CBS) purchased Lyon & Healy and soon after closed all retail stores—that sold sheet music and musical instruments, and their education departments—to focus on harp production.
By 1985, Lyon & Healy also made folk harps, also known as Irish harps, which are even smaller than the Troubadour. The "Shamrock model folk harp" has 34 strings. It stands 55 inches (140 cm) tall with its legs. The legs can be removed so the player can hold the instrument lap—style on the knees. It weighs about 10 kilograms (22 lb). It features Celtic designs on the soundboard. An Irish or folk harp player is sometimes called a harper rather than harpist.
DePaul University now owns the Wabash building. Lyon & Healy harps are still in Chicago, Illinois, at 168 North Ogden Avenue. The building was once home to the recording studios of Orlando R. Marsh.
The firm still exists in one of its buildings producing a range of harps, including a relatively new addition an electronic harp". (courtesy Wiki)
Click below for the history of Lyon & Healy.
"Lyon & Healy is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois. Their Chicago headquarters and manufacturing facility contains a showroom and concert hall. George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy began the company in 1864 as a sheet music shop. By the end of the 19th century, they manufactured a wide range of musical instruments—including guitars, mandolins, banjos, and various brass and percussion instruments.
George W. Lyon and Patrick J. Healy founded the company in 1864, after they moved from Boston to start a sheet music shop for music publisher Oliver Ditson. Determining Lyon & Healy's history is complicated because its building and company records were destroyed in two fires, including the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Two smaller fires did little damage to the firm and did not result in data loss.
Company letters and trade catalogs don't provide exact dates that would reveal when Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments. An article in the Musical Courier states that Lyon & Healy began manufacturing instruments in 1885. Clearly, Lyon & Healy was making fretted string instruments in the 1880s, with Washburn (guitars, mandolins, banjos, and zithers) as their premier line. By the 1900s, if not earlier, Lyon & Healy might well have been manufacturing bowed string instruments.
Lyon & Healy also made various percussion instruments. Later, Lyon & Healy began manufacturing brass instruments, possibly as early as the 1890s. Lyon & Healy also repaired instruments, and offered engraving services. Complicating matters still further, Lyon & Healy engraved instruments that it retailed but did not actually manufacture. In its 1892 catalog, it claimed that it manufactured 100,000 instruments annually.
The company is known to have made other instruments, including reed organs
and pianos. Lyon & Healy evidently began manufacturing these
instruments around 1876 in its factories in Chicago and nearby cities.
George W. Lyon patented his cottage upright in 1878 and it was sold
under the Lyon & Healy name.
Lyon retired in 1889, and Healy died in 1905.
Lyon & Healy built their first harp in 1889. Healy wanted to develop a harp better suited to the rigors of the American climate than available European models. They successfully produced a harp notable for its strength, pitch reliability, and freedom from unwanted vibration. Previously, most harps in North America where made by small groups of craftsmen in France, England, Ireland, or Italy.
In 1890, Lyon & Healy introduced the Style 23 Harp, still a popular and recognizable design. It has 47 strings, highly decorative floral carving on the top of the column, base, and feet, and a fleur de lis pattern at the bottom of the column. It is available in a gold version. It is 74 inches (190 cm) tall, and weighs about 37 kilograms (82 lb). Lyon & Healy produces one of the most ornate and elaborate harps in the world, the Louis XV, which includes carvings of leaves, flowers, scrolls, and shells along its neck and kneeblock, as well the soundboard edges.
They also made small pipe organs. An example survives at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Aspen Colorado. It is a two manual tracker with a 30 note straight pedalboard and 7 ranks. It is believed to have been built around 1900, and can still be pumped by hand.
In 1928, Lyon & Healy introduced one of the most unusual harps ever mass-produced, the Salzedo Model. The company designed it in collaboration with the harpist Carlos Salzedo. It an Art Deco style instrument that incorporates bold red and white lines on the soundboard to create a stylized and distinct appearance.
In the 1960s, Lyon & Healy introduced a smaller lever harp, the Troubadour, a 36-string harp for young beginners with smaller hands, and for casual players. This harp stands 65.5 inches (166 cm), and weighs 17 kilograms (37 lb).
In the late 1970s, Steinway & Sons (then owned by CBS) purchased Lyon & Healy and soon after closed all retail stores—that sold sheet music and musical instruments, and their education departments—to focus on harp production.
By 1985, Lyon & Healy also made folk harps, also known as Irish harps, which are even smaller than the Troubadour. The "Shamrock model folk harp" has 34 strings. It stands 55 inches (140 cm) tall with its legs. The legs can be removed so the player can hold the instrument lap—style on the knees. It weighs about 10 kilograms (22 lb). It features Celtic designs on the soundboard. An Irish or folk harp player is sometimes called a harper rather than harpist.
DePaul University now owns the Wabash building. Lyon & Healy harps are still in Chicago, Illinois, at 168 North Ogden Avenue. The building was once home to the recording studios of Orlando R. Marsh.
The firm still exists in one of its buildings producing a range of harps, including a relatively new addition an electronic harp". (courtesy Wiki)
No comments:
Post a Comment