Hi all,  I have lived in Baltimore, Maryland, city or county all my
life and my grandfather, George Oetken, worked at Knabe as a cabinet
maker for a few years around 1918.  I own two Knabe reproducing pianos,
one of which is an Artrio-Angelus Knabe.

The case of the "A" scale Knabe (5'8") was extended by 8" for a total
length of 6'4" to install the Angelus pouch pneumatic stack above the
Key board.  The stack has a set of fingers behind the fallboard which
press down on capstans screwed into the keys just behind the fallboard.

On two occasions in the 1970s I visited a few days at the American
Piano Company factory in East Rochester where Mr. Brooks set me up in
the Board Room and had his secretary bring me the production books.

I found that starting around 1900 to 1910 (I do not recall the exact
starting date up to 1918 or 1919) Knabe produced special extended "A"
scale pianos.  The column in the books where "A" was normally inserted
for 5'8" pianos had instead "AA" for my Artrio-Angelus and there were
fewer than 200 total listed; as I recall the number was in the low
180's.

Some of these pianos had foot-pumped Angelus-Melodant expression piano
stacks installed and some had Artrio-Angelus stacks.  I have one each
of these stacks as I purchased a Steck-stenciled Knabe for spare parts
from a player piano technician.

I read over the years the only starting date given for Artrio-Angelus
is, as I recall, 1916 but I have a 1913 Artrio upright so I take this
opportunity to update this information.

In thinking about the numbers, approximately about 183 Knabe grand
pianos were custom made for Wilcox-White.  Since some of them have the
Angelus-Melodant installed this implies the Knabe Artrio-Angelus may be
the rarest reproducing piano ever made.  If anyone knows of a Knabe
Artrio other than mine I would like to hear about it.

I have in the distant past seen Knabe foot pumped upright Angelus
expression pianos but I have not seen one with the Artrio-Angelus,
nor did I investigate either of same in the production books.

A well restored Artrio-Angelus is a pleasure to hear but the rolls
are hard to find.  I have only a few hundred AA rolls but I have not
been actively looking in years.

The word Knabe is the archaic German word for a male child under 11
or 12 years of age.  It is not three syllables "K-na-be" but two
syllables where the k and n are merged.  The word in German is
pronounced "Kna-beh" were the eh is pronounced like the e of etching.
The English pronunciation is "Kna-bee" in and around Baltimore where
Catherine St.  is still pronounced "Cather-een" from the German
"Katherine" influence.

Best Regards,
Allen Ford