Wm. Knabe & Co.
Knabe worked for the well-known pianomaker Henry Hartge, and eventually abandoned his plans to become a farmer.
[citation needed] In 1839, Knabe formed a partnership with Henry Gaehle for the purpose of manufacturing pianos and by 1841 they moved to larger workshops at 13 South Liberty Street.
In 1852, the company reorganized as Knabe, Gaehle & Co. with the admission of Edward Betts as partner,[5] and by 1853 advertised their establishment was the largest in the South, employing over 100 workmen.
[10] Henry Gaehle died, and Knabe advertised that he had purchased all the remaining stock and materials and would continue in business as Wm.
They exhibited grand, square, and upright pianos as well as a Tschudi & Broadwood harpsichord at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia,[23] and due to the revised awards system they claimed highest honors along with many of their coexhibitors.
Knabe & Co. had established agencies in Canada and England, and had mortgaged the factory for capital to fund further expansion.
Although the plant included modern appliances such as individually powered machines and a dust-collection system connected to the boiler, Knabe advertised their standards required their pianos to be carefully handcrafted, so that a plain upright took six months and a grand two years to complete.
Knabe & Co., with Chickering & Sons and the Foster-Armstrong Co., of East Rochester, New York, formed the American Piano Co. under the laws of New Jersey, headed by Ernst J. Knabe Jr., president, and C. H. W. Foster of Chickering & Sons, and George G. Foster, of Foster-Armstrong, controlling their respective companies as well as Haines Brothers, Marshall & Wendell, Brewster, and J.
The company went into receivership late in 1916 on account of an unpaid loan,[40] and the brothers declared bankruptcy by the end of the year.
The old factories, including Mason & Hamlin in Boston and the Amphion in Syracuse, New York, were put on the market.
[54] In 1942, the East Rochester factories were contracted to manufacture military aircraft parts, keeping the plants and personnel in operation,[55] but by late 1949 piano production returned to full capacity.
[60] In 1985, Sohmer & Co. purchased the Knabe and Mason & Hamlin trademarks and their patterns and equipment from Citicorp Industrial Credit Co., Aeolian's principal creditors.
Knabe & Co. pianos are manufactured by Samick Musical Instruments, Ltd., which acquired the name from PianoDisc, owners of Mason & Hamlin, in 2001.
In early 2006, Samick Music Corporation, distributor for Samick in the United States and Canada, announced it had started building a 210,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) distribution center and factory in Gallatin, Tennessee, where they plan to manufacture Knabe and J. P. Pramberger lines beginning in late 2006 or early 2007.
