Frederick Mathushek

Biography

Frederick Mathushek, born at Mannheim on June 9, 1814, learned piano making at Worms and, after his apprenticeship, traveled through Germany and Austria before working in Henri Pape's shop in Paris, where he absorbed Pape's inventive spirit. Back in Worms he built experimental 'freak' pianos, including an octagon table piano now preserved in the Ibach Museum at Barmen, though his ventures were not commercially successful. In 1849 he emigrated to New York and was engaged by John B. Dunham to draw new scales, reportedly producing an overstrung square-piano scale around 1850; he also invented a hammer-covering machine still foundational to the industry. After working independently from 1852, he was lured in 1857 by Spencer B. Driggs's ambitious but impractical plans. By 1866 he headed the Mathushek Piano Company in New Haven, Connecticut, where he invented the linear bridge and equalizing scale, producing the celebrated 'Colibri' piano and admired orchestral square pianos. Author Alfred Dolge worked alongside him there and praised his uniquely sensitive ear for tone. In 1871 Mathushek founded Mathushek & Son in New York with his grandson; the firm later merged with Jacob Brothers. He died a poor man, like his mentor Pape, on November 9, 1891. Frederick Mathushek patented a hammer-covering machine in 1850 that was of much simpler construction than Rudolf Kreter's, built with a wooden frame and iron screws for down and side pressure, patterned after the earlier Wilke machine. His machine was generally adopted by other makers for its simplicity, though it remained difficult to produce a properly pointed hammer with the thicker felt later demanded. Mathushek is also associated with double soundboards, built together with Moser, in which the grain of one board crossed the grain of the other at right angles, eliminating transverse vibration without sacrificing tone. Alfred Dolge worked at the Mathushek factory from 1867 to 1869, during which time exhaustive experiments were made there on the most responsive soundboard thickness, ranging from boards a full inch thick to only three-sixteenths of an inch in the treble. Frederick Mathushek is credited with inventing the linear soundboard bridge in 1865, an improvement Dolge singles out as "the most ingenious" among the many additions made to pianos following the introduction of Steinway's overstrung scale and full iron frame. The invention is presented as part of the rapid development the American piano industry underwent after receiving new impetus from these mid-century innovations. No further biographical information about Mathushek is given in this section. Frederick Mathushek is named as one of the most talented pupils trained in Johann Heinrich Pape's Paris factory during Pape's prime years, from 1835 to 1855, a period when young piano makers from across the Continent came to study under him before going on to their own careers. From Spillane (1890): Frederick Mathushek was born at Mannheim, Germany, on June 9, 1814, and learned piano-making before emigrating, working in leading shops in Germany, Russia, and Austria, and finally at Pape's in Paris. He came to New York after the Revolution of 1848, landing in America in 1849, and had figured prominently in the trade for over forty years by the time of writing. He made the 'Mathushek piano' on his own account from 1852 to 1857, then joined S. B. Driggs. After leaving Driggs he helped found the New Haven, Conn. firm producing the Mathushek & Company piano, later returning to New York and going into business with his son under the Mathushek & Son name. In 1879 he patented a string-adjustment method called the 'equilibre system,' used especially in his uprights; Spillane characterizes it as a modification of earlier patent ideas applied with more modern conditions. Spillane calls him 'a most noteworthy inventor and piano-maker' and a highly esteemed member of the trade. Frederick Mathushek, described as "the well-known name," was for a time the interpreter and producer of many of Spencer B. Driggs' sounding-board innovations. Driggs, possessing ample capital but lacking Mathushek's acoustic expertise, employed "the clever, practical head of Mathushek" to put his revolutionary schemes into operation. Frederick Mathushek was a piano manufacturer operating a shop in the United States. When Alfred Dolge landed in America in 1866 at age seventeen, it was inside Mathushek's shop that Dolge gained his first American experience as a piano-maker, working there for a few years before briefly returning to Germany.

Highlights

• Invented the linear soundboard bridge in 1865, called by Dolge "the most ingenious" of the improvements added to pianos of the period.
• Patented a hammer-covering machine in 1850, simpler in construction than Kreter's and patterned after the Wilke machine
• With Moser, built double soundboards glued with grains crossed at right angles to prevent transverse vibration
• Employed Alfred Dolge from 1867-69, during which extensive experiments on soundboard thickness were conducted
• Studied as a pupil under Johann Heinrich Pape in Paris
• Trained in Henri Pape's Paris workshop and built experimental 'freak' pianos, including an octagon table piano now in the Ibach Museum
• Invented the piano hammer-covering machine and reportedly drew America's first overstrung square-piano scale for John B. Dunham around 1850
• Invented the linear bridge and equalizing scale, producing the celebrated 'Colibri' piano and admired orchestral square pianos
• Employed by Spencer B. Driggs as "the clever, practical head" to realize Driggs' sounding-board innovations.
• Described as "the well-known name" and "interpreter and producer of many of Driggs' innovations."
• Made the 'Mathushek piano' independently from 1852 to 1857 before joining S. B. Driggs
• After leaving Driggs, was instrumental in founding the New Haven, Conn. firm that made the Mathushek & Company piano
• Patented the 'equilibre system' of string adjustment in 1879, applied to his uprights
• Employed Alfred Dolge in his shop, giving Dolge his first American experience as a piano-maker after his 1866 arrival

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 52, 100, 260, 321, 322, 323, 325.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 226, 227, 317.

Public domain.