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[Hartford, Connecticut Piano Dealer Daybooks.]

Hartford, Connecticut, 1860s–1870s. 4to (12.5” x 8.25”), 2 vols. , full brown calf with blind-stamped border on covers, black lettering pieces at spines. Vol. I: 332 pp. of manuscript; Vol. II: 204 pp. of manuscript, 36 blank pp.

Two daybooks recording transactions and accounts kept by an unidentified Hartford piano company that sold Steinway & Sons pianos and offered numerous piano services.

The company serviced a wide range of clients in the Hartford area and vicinity—including churches, a Women’s Christian Association, wealthy individuals, banks, a hospital for the insane, schools, opera houses, and so forth. In addition to selling both new and used grand and upright pianos, the firm also sold piano stools, covers, cartridges, boxes, ottoman green plush stools, and other piano-related equipment. Some of the services recorded here include “moving grand piano to opera house and back,” repairs, reframing pianos, storage, moving pianos for school exhibitions, commissions, rentals, tuning, packing, polishing, etc. One piano receives the following treatment for a sum of $167.64: “Putting on new legs, new strings, new pins, newly covering hammers, case varnished & polished and action repaired.” The style and number of each piano recorded is given, and in a few cases the company handles organs.

Whereas Vol. I (spanning 2 Apr. 1868–30 Dec. 1873) is organized chronologically, Vol. II is organized by client and also spans from the 1860s to the 1870s. Including a section at the back entitled “Piano Rents,” Vol. II also records piano sales to certain individuals and then subsequent services administered to the piano. Several pages in Vol. II record the sheer amount of business the company did with Steinway & Sons. Many of Hartford’s other noted companies during this period crop up across both volumes.

CONDITION: Good.

Item #5850

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