Sunday, April 7, 2013

We used to make things in this country #21: Mason and Risch Pianos


The Mason and Risch piano at the Limehouse (Ont.) Community Hall.  I'm not much of a piano aficionado and the good people of Limehouse might have taken a dim view of me disassembling the piano to find a serial number but this looks like one of the later apartment size pianos the company made after it had became part of the large Aeolian Corporation. 
 Mason and Risch was one of the largest and best known of the many Canadian piano manufacturers, starting business in 1871 with a factory on King St W in Toronto and gaining world wide recognition a decade later when acclaimed by piano virtuoso Franz Liszt. According to pianotech they built excellent upright and grand pianos up till about the middle of the 20th century with the quality falling off after the company was sold to the American piano manufacturer Winter & Company. The Mason & Risch name was discontinued in the 1980's when Aeolian went out of business.
http://www.ragtimepiano.ca/rags/can4.htm

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