William Knabe

Biography

William Knabe was born at Kreutzberg, Germany, in 1803. Though educated for a learned profession, he chose to learn piano making instead, serving an apprenticeship and gaining experience with several German masters. He came to Baltimore in 1833 and worked for inventor Henry Hartje before founding his own business in 1839 in partnership with fellow German maker Henry Gaehle, as Knabe & Gaehle. After Gaehle withdrew in 1854, Knabe built the firm, William Knabe & Company, into a dominant force; by 1860 it nearly controlled the entire piano market of the southern states. The Civil War disrupted this market and strained the firm for years. Knabe died in 1864, worn from overwork and worry, leaving the business to his sons William and Ernest, who had been thoroughly trained by their father in piano making. From Spillane (1890): William Knabe was a Baltimore piano-maker whose superior education had originally been intended for one of the learned professions, a plan the Napoleonic wars made impossible. After acquiring American piano-making methods and fluency in English, he partnered with fellow practical maker Henry Gaehle in 1839 to found Knabe & Gaehle. The partnership dissolved in 1854, after which Knabe retained the legal right to date his firm's origin to 1839 as Knabe & Company. Through sterling instrument quality and shrewd executive ability, the Knabe piano achieved artistic and commercial eminence by 1860, and the firm controlled much of the Southern trade amid sectional antipathy toward Northern goods. Knabe was a well-regarded public figure in Baltimore, active in local affairs per Scharf's 'Annals of Baltimore.' He died in 1864, mourned across the city. His sons William Jr. and Ernest, along with relative-by-marriage Charles Keidel, succeeded him as heirs of the firm. William Knabe, "the elder," was born in Kreutzburg, Germany, in 1803, and acquired a thorough knowledge of piano-making in all its branches in his native country before emigrating to the United States. Upon arriving in Baltimore in 1833, he immediately went to work in the shop of Henry Hartye. The author introduces him as the future founder of "the great house of Knabe & Company," describing the firm as one of the most respected piano houses in relation to art and commercial life throughout the South and North. An engraved portrait of Knabe accompanies this section of the text. The chapter that follows is expected to detail the founding of Knabe & Gaehle and, subsequently, Knabe & Company, per the chapter's table of contents. William Knabe is named as the founder whose name occupies an honored place in the history of piano manufacturing in Baltimore, a city in which, by the time of writing, the firm of Knabe & Company had become pre-eminent, in contrast to the city's early piano trade.

Highlights

• Founded what became William Knabe & Company in Baltimore in 1839
• By 1860 his firm controlled nearly the entire piano market of the southern United States
• Left the business to sons William and Ernest upon his death in 1864
• Born in Kreutzburg, Germany, in 1803, and learned piano-making thoroughly there before emigrating
• Arrived in Baltimore in 1833 and went to work in Henry Hartye's shop
• Founded Knabe & Company, described as one of the most respected piano firms in the South and North
• Founded Knabe & Gaehle in 1839 with partner Henry Gaehle, the predecessor of William Knabe & Company
• Built the Knabe piano into a nationally recognized instrument by 1860, controlling much of the Southern trade
• A popular citizen of Baltimore, the 'Monumental City'; died in 1864 generally regretted by all classes
• Founder whose name is 'entitled to an honored place' in the piano-making history of Baltimore

Sources

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

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 130, 131, 132, 133, 300.

Public domain.