Spencer B. Driggs

Biography

Spencer B. Driggs was a piano-industry figure who, in 1857, lured Frederick Mathushek away from his own business with liberal financial offers to help realize Driggs's ambitious and, in the author's characterization, 'vague, not to say wild,' notions for revolutionizing the construction of the piano. The text notes that even a genius as versatile as Mathushek could not achieve practical results by following Driggs's ideas. From Spillane (1890): Spencer B. Driggs arrived in New York around 1856, having lived in Detroit the previous year, where he experimented with piano construction and, on December 18, 1855, took out U.S. Patent No. 13,942 for an arched sounding-board held in position by a metallic framing; the same invention was patented in Great Britain on November 1. In New York he formed the Driggs Piano Company, which drew attention chiefly through aggressive newspaper advertising. Driggs believed prevailing sounding-board practice was flawed and sought to apply the curved shape of a violin belly to the piano sounding-board, though the author judges the attempt technically mistaken since violin bellies are carved from solid wood blocks rather than compressed into an arch. The composer William Vincent Wallace was for a time a member of the Driggs Piano Company. Driggs later partnered with a Mr. Tooker to produce the Driggs & Tooker piano, and by about 1862 he had settled into more standard construction principles, continuing as a small maker of some note until about 1870. He remained "an indefatigable inventor and experimentalist," recording numerous patents from 1855 until his death, and employed Frederick Mathushek to help realize his sounding-board innovations.

Highlights

• In 1857 lured Frederick Mathushek away with liberal offers to pursue his own unconventional ideas for revolutionizing piano construction
• Business partner of Frederick Mathushek before Mathushek left to found his own firm
• Dropped out of the piano trade around 1870
• Held inventions that, per Spillane, 'have not survived, which in itself proves their worth'
• Patented an arched sounding-board held by metallic framing (U.S. Patent No. 13,942, December 18, 1855; also patented in Great Britain).
• Formed the Driggs Piano Company in New York, which gained attention through heavy newspaper advertising.
• Later partnered as Driggs & Tooker; remained "an indefatigable inventor and experimentalist" until his death.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), p. 322.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), p. 226.

Public domain.