Myth: only the wealthy could afford 'reproducing' pianos.

Hello MMD readers,  Have been looking at the current series, about
the value of Welte-Mignon T-100 rolls, then and now, along with related
topics.  True, the rolls sold for up to $20 for certain Scharwenka
releases, but this was only during the four to six years prior to
World War One.

People of modest incomes could buy the console player (pushup) for
Welte rolls, and did.  What curtailed the spread of electrically-pumped
'reproducing' pianos was the variety of electric currents in those days
in both the AC and DC formats.

My experience with the Welte-Mignon in the homes of the wealthy (still
hanging on, in the late 'Forties through the early 'Fifties) was that
they were often "beautiful furniture" which had a fancy cabinet of
rolls, with famous pianists' logotypes on the box labels.  As with the
Harvard Classics, which the customers never read, these instruments
were more often than not played by hand.

That brings up the wealthy versus the middle class topic again.  When
you got a group together, in my Middle Class upbringing, somebody in
the group played well, so they commanded the piano at parties and
social events.  The [mechanical] player wasn't used, even if it still
operated.  Rich people hired live musicians, since 'canned' music in
those days before the Great War was on a lower tier.

After the conflict, especially in the States, rural electrification and
the adoption of 110 VAC 60 Hz power made the instruments more readily
marketable across the country.

I purchased my 1924 Stroud Duo-Art, back in the 'Fifties, from the
original customer.  She gave me her Sherman & Clay contract for time
payments that were checked off periodically which ran until 1936.

Moreover, in those days of a half-century ago I found many upright and
grand 'reproducing' pianos from the 'Twenties in ordinary peoples'
homes, many still running.  We are talking here of standard uprights
and grands up to 5' 10", in most cases.

The term "reproducing piano" wasn't used in that short-lived heady time
of marketing the Hupfeld DEA or the Welte-Mignon.  Usually, the brand
name for the instrument was pushed, or it was called an "Autograph
Piano", an "Art Piano" or, in the US, the "Welte Artistic Player".
(Again, "reproducers" are a component of Edison phonographs, so the
term received no emphasis in the 'Twenties, when the general public
bought their instruments, primarily.)

I believe that the phrase that "only the wealthy could afford
'reproducing' pianos" is a revisionist one, started after World War II,
when expression players were rediscovered.

These are only my observances, of course.

Regards,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
Wiscasset, Maine 04578 USA
http://wiscasset.nnei.net/artcraft/

 [ Historian and Welte-Mignon restorer Hans-W. Schmitz says that the
 [ the municipal electric power in pre-WW1 Europe was as non-standard
 [ as in North America.  He says that in the early 1920s, when Germany
 [ standardized on 220 VAC 50 Hz, many technicians were busy exchanging
 [ old DC motors for new AC motors in reproducing pianos and
 [ orchestrions.  -- Robbie