John Clark

Biography

John Clark came to New York from England and, in 1833, was taken into partnership with Robert Nunns, forming Nunns, Clark & Company, with warerooms at 137 Broadway. The firm became simply Nunns & Clark in 1838 and led the New York piano trade until its decline around 1858. In 1851 the firm purchased Rudolph Kreter's newly patented hammer-covering machine, becoming probably the first in the world to use the improved method, extensively introducing felt hammer coverings into its instruments. John Clark built an organ in 1743 for the Episcopal church of Salem, Massachusetts. Spillane, citing Felt's Annals of Salem, credits this instrument as the earliest organ known to have been erected in the United States. The reference appears in Spillane's discussion of early American organ- and instrument-building that preceded the emergence of piano manufacture in Boston.

Highlights

• Built the organ for the Episcopal church of Salem, Massachusetts, in 1743.
• Cited (via Felt's Annals of Salem) as maker of the earliest organ known to have been set up in the country.
• Came to New York from England in 1833 and was taken into partnership with Robert Nunns, forming Nunns, Clark & Company
• The firm (later Nunns & Clark) purchased Rudolph Kreter's hammer-covering patent in 1851, reportedly the first such use in the world

Source

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 47, 152, 153.

Public domain.