Miguel de Mattos wrote in 020125 MMDigest :

> It's a reproducing piano, no doubt, but very different from
> the Hupfeld Triphonolas.  Any comments are welcome.

The Hupfeld DEA was made as a direct response to the Welte-Mignon.
It proved much more difficult to market than expected, for a reason
which took player-piano makers in general a number of years to
appreciate: the pianos were useless for any other type or make of roll.

Piano owners, once they realised this was not an inevitable outcome of
ownership, disliked being made "prisoners" of one manufacturer.  Welte
had made this mistake first, and so as a direct result the Ampico and
Duo-Art systems were designed to suit the standard 88-note format.

Welte later recovered the situation with the Welte Licensee.  Hupfeld
started again with the Triphonola in 1918-1919, which incorporated many
of the DEA's features.  The Triphonola at the time was the only
reproducing piano which played all 88 notes of the scale and this
feature was later copied in the "green paper" Welte-Mignon.

While at the Hupfeld studios to record for the DEA, pianists were
photographed and their picture reproduced in half-tone on each of their
rolls.  I particularly treasured one DEA roll I somehow obtained which
bore a photo of Artur Schnabel -- later famous for claiming he never
made player piano rolls.  (Of course some of his DEA performances were
later remastered for Ampico.)

Incidentally, another quite superb series of plate photographs survived
the destruction of the Hupfeld works by RAF bombing which have now been
used for a breathtaking "coffee-table" picture book of famous pianists
when they were there and at a studio in Vienna recording for DEA
between 1907 and 1910.  The book also contains some detailed photos
showing a few of the very lavish Hupfeld showrooms around the world.
"Cornermen" (a term to describe railway historians who extract
important information from the corners of old plate photos) will espy
at least three different types of recording machine in the studios,
one of them with a curved transparent celluloid top.

Since I have now secured my copy, I can safely reveal that this is
available for 30 euro plus postage from the Musical Instrument Museum
at Leipzig University.  The details are:

  "Im Aufnahmesalon Hupfeld" (ed. Eszter Fontana)
  Verlag Janos Stekovics, Halle an der Saale
  ISBN 3-932863-34-8
  or, from the university: ISBN 3-9804574-4-3.

I have copied the ordering details to Robbie.

Dan Wilson, London

 [ See the review by Albert Petrak in 011029 MMDigest about the
 [ the new book, "Im Aufnahmesalon Hupfeld".  Complete ordering
 [ information is also given.  The old price, 58 DM, is the same
 [ as 39.655 euro; at today's market value this is about 25.65
 [ US dollars.  See http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic and
 [ http://www.oanda.com/site/euro.shtml "Introducing the Euro".
 [
 [ Like other names of currencies, the new currency name is not
 [ capitalized in English text, so in MMD it's spelled "euro".
 [ -- Robbie