James Pirsson

Biography

James Pirsson was a New York piano manufacturer whose firm, Pirsson, was among the piano houses—alongside Gilbert & Company of Boston, Jonas Chickering of Boston, Stodart & Dunham of Worcester, and Conrad Meyer of Philadelphia—whose advertising patronage helped sustain Henry C. Watson's Musical Chronicle, founded in 1843, one of the first musical journals to link piano manufacturers with the musical and artistic world. He was the father of Alfred Pirsson, who was associated with the American Art Journal until succeeded there by William M. Thoms in 1867. James Pirsson was a New York piano-maker who introduced and patented, in 1857, a double sounding-board arrangement using two sets of strings. Baltimore maker Joseph Newman's own patented sounding-board improvement of the same year was copied from Pirsson's design, prompting some controversy. Pirsson's double grand pianos built on this plan were well-known instruments of their era, noted chiefly for their eccentricity rather than lasting commercial success.

Highlights

• A New York maker who introduced and patented a double sounding-board with two sets of strings in 1857, later copied by Joseph Newman of Baltimore
• His double grand pianos built on this plan were well known in their time, chiefly for their eccentricity
• New York piano manufacturer whose firm advertised in the Musical Chronicle (founded 1843)
• Father of Alfred Pirsson, predecessor of William M. Thoms at the American Art Journal

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 135, 348, 350.

Public domain.