Frederick Mathushek (June 9, 1814 – November 9, 1891) was a piano maker who worked in Worms, Germany, and in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut, during the second half of the nineteenth century. His name was 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, Baden, June 9, 1814. He apprenticed with a pianomaker until the age of 17, when he travelled to visit piano making facilities in Germany, Austria, Russia, and Paris. He established his own workshop in Worms, where he built pianos influenced by those he had seen in Jean-Henri Pape's factory.
New York, 1850s
In 1849 Mathushek emigrated to New York 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 that 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 scaleWilliam 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 farther apart on the sounding board than 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. By 1856 he was listed at 188 Mercer and 72 Prince, and at 252 Fourth street from 1858 through 1861.Trow's New York City Directory John F. Trow, New York 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861
Piano historians Daniel Spillane and Dolge wrote that by 1857 Mathushek 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 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.
By late 1859, Mathushek was associated with lawyer 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).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 In 1863 Mathushek was a member of Mathushek & Kühner, a copartnership with Leopold Kuhner, and they were awarded a bronze medal for a "piano of new and elegant shape" at the American Institute Fair that year."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 The firm was listed at 34 Second Avenue in 1863 and 1864Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory for 1864-'65 John F. Trow, New York 1864 p.60 and 10 Second Avenue by 1866.Wilson's New York City Copartnership Directory for 1866-'67 John F. Trow, New York 1866.p.68
Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company
In 1866 Morris Steinert, who had a music store in New Haven, Connecticut and was a stocking agent for Mathushek & Kuhner,New Haven Directory and Annual Advertiser for 1866-7 J. H. Bentham, New Haven 1866 convinced Mathushek to move from New York to superintend a piano manufacturing company newly organized as the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company, on Orange Street, between Chapel and Crown street. Steinert and his co-investors soon sold their interest in the company at a loss. In his 1902 biography, Steinert blamed their lack of success on inexperience in manufacturing and advertisement, as well as "certain difficulties regarding [their] Superintentent"; according to an 1882 account written by Mathushek's grandson, ownership of the company passed to Henry S. Parmelee, who he wrote had been involved from the start but "managed, by certain means...to obtain control of all the stock except that belonging to...Mathushek".Music and Drama August 26, 1882. p.21-22
Henry S. Parmelee (–1902)"Personal Mention: Henry S. Parmelee" Street Railway Journal, vol. XX, no. 18, November 1, 1902. p.776 had been the junior partner in Parmelee & Son, a short-lived piano manufacturing company formed after a destructive fire at the Parmelee Piano Company's factory at 9 Howard Street in 1865,Fires in New Haven, from January 1, 1800, to July 1, 1866. City of New Haven: Addesses of Mayor Sperry and Ex-Mayor Scranton, with Annual Reports...for 1866-7 Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor 1866 p.151 and listed only in the 1866 New Haven Directory. His father Spencer (c. 1805–1875)Deaths Hartford Courant October 22, 1875 p.2 was a wealthy New Haven businessmanS. T. Parmelee's income for 1864 was reported to be $25000"State Items" Hartford Courant January 27, 1865 p.2 who had previously been president of the Driggs Piano Co. in New YorkSpencer B Driggs was vice president and Lewis C. Parmelee, treasurerTrow's New York City Directory for the year ending May 1, 1861 John F. Trow, New York 1861 and had patented tuning pin bushings—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 His name was applied to pianos built by the Parmelee Piano Co., though he did not appear to have been in charge of the firm.The directors listed in an 1865 advertisement are G. H. Scranton, president, A. Y. Parmelee, secretary, and E. H. Osborn, general agent advertisement New England Business Directory Adams Sampson & Co Boston 1865
Mathushek Piano Co. was initially listed at 196 Chapel street but by 1869 was listed at 106 Park street, formerly of Parmelee & Sons, and with Spencer T. Parmelee as president and William L. Everitt, treasurer.Benham's New Haven Directory and Annual Advertiser for 1869-70 J. H. Benham, New Haven 1869
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 based on Mathushek's designs. Their 4'10" long (147 cm) Colibri had earned the highest awards for any piano at the 1867 American Institute fair, and both it and their 6'10" inch long (208 cm) Orchestral used the entire sounding board instead of only the right hand side as in conventional square pianos. This combination, patented by Mathushek, of straight bridges –the linear bridge – and the distribution of strings across the sounding board and iron frame – the equalizing scale was claimed to produce "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 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 5'9" (175 cm)-long square, and an upright incorporating Parmelee's 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
Parmelee replaced Everitt as treasurer around 1871 and became president following his father's death in 1875."Mr. Henry S. Parmelee" Electrical Review vol.41 no.17 p.576 October 25, 1902
In 1880 the Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. established their own New York warerooms 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 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, Grinnell/General Fire Extinguisher Company Complex Historical Context , 2005 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 inwards 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.
New York, 1870s According to the account in the 1882 Music and Drama article, by 1870 Mathushek returned to New York and was only nominally associated with the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Company; Dolge dated it one year later when he was listed there in unassigned patents he received for a system compensating wires arranged to counteract the bending strain of the main strings, and vertically bent key levers for 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)
A later account describes Mathushek manufacturing his own pianos through 1873 as a member of Mathushek & Co., with warerooms on 9th Street near Broadway and a factory at 145th street and Brook Avenue in partnership with his daughter Hermine, who as early as 1869 was listed as a member of Barlow & Mathushek, with W. S. Barlow selling pianos at 694 Broadway.The Answer of Mathushek & Son Music Trades Review vol. 37 no. 26 (December 26, 1903) p.15