Henry Gaehle

Biography

Henry Gaehle, a German piano maker, partnered with William Knabe in Baltimore beginning in 1839 under the firm name Knabe & Gaehle. The moderately successful association continued until 1854, when Gaehle withdrew, after which Knabe built the business into a dominant firm on his own. From Spillane (1890): Henry Gaehle was a practical Baltimore piano-maker who became William Knabe's business partner in 1839, forming the firm Knabe & Gaehle. The partnership lasted until 1854, when it was dissolved, with Knabe retaining the rights to the original firm's legal identity. Gaehle's own name remained prominent in the Southern piano trade afterward; Gaehle & Company appeared in the Baltimore business directory for many years, including throughout the Civil War when the local piano trade was seriously depressed, and was known specifically as a maker of popular-price instruments.

Highlights

• German piano maker who partnered with William Knabe from 1839 as Knabe & Gaehle
• Withdrew from the partnership in 1854
• A practical piano-maker who partnered with William Knabe in 1839 to found Knabe & Gaehle
• After the partnership dissolved in 1854, continued independently as Gaehle & Company, a popular-price Baltimore maker into the Civil War era

Sources

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

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 131, 133.

Public domain.