Wertheim Piano
The logo and keys of a late Wertheim upright piano from between 1925-1930
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| Industry | Musical instruments |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1880s (imports), 1908 (current) |
| Founder | Hugo Wertheim (1854-1919) |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
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Key people
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Hugo Wertheim, Herbert Wertheim |
| Products | Grand pianos and upright pianos |
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Number of employees
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300-400 at peak |
Wertheim is an Australian brand of pianos, formerly produced in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Around 18,000 upright pianos were made in Melbourne between 1908 and 1935. They were designed for the south-eastern Australian climate and were a popular all-purpose piano.
They were used in a range of settings such as schools and public halls, as they were renowned for their ability to stay in tune for prolonged periods of time, requiring little maintenance. They were also used by piano teachers and for professional live performance, the most famous of which was for performances by Dame Nellie Melba, who frequently requested that Wertheim Pianos be used during her performances.
The business was very successful and the Wertheim family achieved celebrity status in Australia during the 1920s. However, after the 1929 Great Depression and with declining demand for pianos, the factory closed in 1935. Today, Wertheim is still an Australian owned company and the Wertheim brand name is used for a range of pianos that are produced overseas in China and South Korea. Original Wertheim pianos undamaged and fully restored can be potentially quite valuable.
Hugo Wertheim migrated from Frankfurt, Germany to Melbourne, Australia as a reasonably wealthy man, in 1875 after being sent by his father, Meyer Wertheim, to travel the world as an agent for the family's sewing machine business. He opened two showrooms in Bourke & Collins Streets, importing German goods such as pianos, harmoniums and bicycles, but later focussed his attention on the demand for pianos in the then, new colony of Australia. Wertheim began importing cheap German pianos and re-badging them as "The Planet" and "Habsburg Wertheim" possibly as early as 1880. Around the turn of the century, Wertheim sent his eldest son, Herbert, to learn the piano manufacturing trade in the United States and tour the continent before returning to run the new Melbourne enterprise.
While Wertheim's son was overseas, he commissioned architect Nahum Barnet, who had worked for Steinway, Bechstein, Kaps and others, to design a prestigious factory. Wertheim spent somewhere between $25 and 75 thousand on the factory which was designed in a Free Arts and Crafts style applied to an industrial building. The investment was of such significance in Australia at the time that Prime Minister Alfred Deakin laid the factory's foundation stone on 21 October 1908. The structure was built by R. McDonald on 4 acres (16,000 m2) of land at 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond and when completed hosted 50,000 squares of space, its own power generator and tram line. At its peak, the factory was the largest piano factory in Australia, employed around 300 people and produced up to 2,000 pianos a year, including 12 grand pianos.
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Wikipedia