Geib

Biography

Geib was one of the so-called '12 apostles'—German piano makers, nearly all pupils of Silbermann—who emigrated to London around 1760 and became pioneers of the English piano industry, later appearing in the London city directory as a pianoforte maker. From Spillane (1890): Geib was one of the 'twelve apostles,' a group of twelve German workmen who settled in London around 1760, an arrival Spillane treats as an epoch of consequence in English pianoforte manufacture. Spillane notes that many descendants of these men later became identified with the early development of the American pianoforte, though no further individual detail about Geib is given in this text. Geib was a New York piano manufacturer active by the mid-1830s who exhibited a two-stringed square piano at an early Mechanics' Institute exhibition, alongside entries from other local makers such as Charles Sackmeister and Dubois & Stodart. No further biographical detail is given in this text.

Highlights

• One of the '12 apostles' who emigrated from Silbermann's Saxony workshops to London around 1760
• One of the 'twelve apostles,' German workmen who settled in London around 1760
• Descendants of this group were later identified with early American pianoforte development
• New York piano manufacturer who exhibited a two-stringed square piano at an early Mechanics' Institute exhibition

Sources

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

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 20, 149.

Public domain.