Brown

Biography

Brown, a graduate of the Chickering factory who had obtained several patents for piano improvements, co-founded the Boston firm of Brown & Hallet in 1835 with a partner named Hallet. This firm was the historic origin of what became the Hallet & Davis Piano Company. Brown retired from the business in 1843, his place being taken by George H. Davis. From Spillane (1890): Edwin Brown was an apprentice-graduate of the Chickering shop who, around 1835, co-founded the Boston piano firm of Brown & Hallet with financial backer Russell Hallet. In 1838 Brown patented a string-damping method producing a "harmonic" soft-pedal effect without needing to shift the action; a small six-octave Brown & Hallet piano incorporating this feature was awarded the highest honors at the 1840 Franklin Institute Fair over twenty other instruments, the judges praising its tone as superior to all others in the collection. On January 27, 1843, Brown patented a complex grand piano action designed for more perfect repetition, drawing on principles of the French grand action; elements of this action were later used by Chickering & Sons. Brown & Hallet's affordable pianos gave the firm a strong reputation among New England buyers who could not afford a Chickering instrument. Edwin Brown was a Boston piano maker associated with the Brown & Hallet concern. Late in an unspecified year he retired from that firm and became a department foreman in the Chickering shop, a post he held for many years; the text notes he was, at the time of writing, still alive at the venerable age of eighty-four and highly esteemed. Around 1850, he left Chickering again and formed a partnership with Henry Allen (formerly of Hallet, Davis & Company), producing the Brown & Allen piano; it was in this shop that Henry F. gained his first exposure to piano manufacturing. After a further period as a manufacturer, Brown dissolved the Brown & Allen partnership and returned once more to Chickering's shop. Edwin Brown was the source from whom George H. Chickering learned, without doubt, that John Osborn had met his death by falling from a window in New York, confirming the account Spillane had already pieced together. No further biographical detail about Brown is given in the text.

Highlights

• Co-founded Brown & Hallet in Boston in 1835, forerunner of the Hallet & Davis Piano Company
• Graduate of the Chickering factory who obtained several patents for improvements
• Retired from the firm in 1843
• Source who informed George H. Chickering that John Osborn died from falling out of a window in New York
• Apprentice-graduate of the Chickering shop; co-founded Brown & Hallet in Boston around 1835.
• Patented a string-damping soft-pedal method in 1838 that won highest honors at the 1840 Franklin Institute Fair.
• Patented a complex grand action on January 27, 1843, later used by Chickering & Sons.
• Retired from Brown & Hallet to become a department foreman at Chickering, a position he held for many years
• Still living at age eighty-four at time of writing, and highly esteemed
• Later left Chickering to co-found Brown & Allen with Henry Allen, then returned to Chickering again

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911).

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 157, 165, 166, 167.

Public domain.