H. Holtzman and Sons Oak Piano Stool (Ca. 1900)

Another piece that I restored for Christmas was an Oak piano stool made by H.Holtzman and Sons in Columbus, Ohio. Judging by the history of the company and also by the overall condition and style of the stool, I judged it's age to be right around 1900, give or take 10 years.

The H. Holtzman and Sons company was founded sometime in the 1860's by Henry Holtzman in
either Pittsburgh, PA or New York City,NY. (Sources Differ on this point.) In 1893 the business was moved to Colombus, Ohio and was run by the sons Frank (and possibly Charles). Henry Holtzman Passed away in December of 1904. I n Ohio, the business grew to be one of the largest piano stool and piano cover manufacturers in the country. An early advertisement for the stools reads as follows:

Henry Holtzman and Sons
Manufacturers and importers of
Piano Scarfs
Grand Covers, Square Covers,
Rubber, and Gossamer Covers
a large variety of
Piano Stools
2121 t0 2122 E. Main St.
Columbus, Ohio

To view the advertisement, follow this link:

http://mis.mclemore.com/mtr/MTR-1895-21-2/MTR-1895-21-2-10.pdf

They certainly did produce a large variety of piano stools, a quick Google search will show images of many different styles of stools made from many different types of wood. As for the piano covers, it is hard to know much more about that side of the business.

The factory mentioned in the advertisement has been demolished now, but I was able to find an image of it which I have provided below.

The business seems to have had it's heyday in the early part of the 2oth century. I found many references to it and one included mention of a Chicago branch of the company. The business was run by various members of the Holtzman Family until it closed in 1959.

I was able to find out the manufacturer of this stool because the mounting plate for the screw mechanism on the underside of the seat had the words "H.Holtzman and Sons Colum, Ohio" Cast in it. I neglected to get a photo of this, but was able to find a photo of a similar (and later) mounting plate on the internet.
Here is a photo of the stool when it arrived in my shop. The finish was in bad shape and the joinery on the stool needed some repair work.There was also a crack in the seat that needed to be filled.
One of the legs had been replaced during the lifetime of the stool, and it had later been repaired at the top joint with a large bolt going through the main post. This had great visual appeal, and the customer and I decided it was part of the history of the stool and should be left in place. This was until I discovered that the bolt was preventing the stool from raising and lowering fully. With this in mind, the bolt was removed and the joinery fixed on the leg. All off the other repairs were made and a new finish put on the stool. Here are two photos of the stool after it was completed.

Player Piano Roll Cabinet Part 2 (ca. 1920)

The piece I have been working on recently is a player piano roll storage cabinet made around 1920. I wrote an earlier post on this cabinet and its history. Essentially, rolls were stored on shelves in the cabinet end wise so that the labels could be seen. This cabinet came with several different shelves with some great hand written paper labels applied to them. Below is a photo of the shelves in place. The following two photos show the labels describing what types of music should be stored on that shelf. My favorite is the "duets" category spelled with two "t"s!


The drawers needed a little work. Mostly, they needed material added to the runners. One also had a drawer bottom that had shrunk so that it was loose, so I added material to that as well. Below are two photos of the drawers being worked on.

This photo shows the doors during the application of the finish.
These last two photos show the completed storage cabinet with the new drawer pulls and bun feet.

Player Piano Roll Cabinet (ca. 1920)

One of the pieces I am currently working on is a player piano roll storage cabinet. Player pianos read "music" which was laid out on a paper roll. As the roll was wound from one side to the other, holes in the paper would indicate to the piano which notes were to be played. When a roll was not in use, it was stored in a cardboard box with a label on one end indicating the tune that was played by the roll. The player piano was the record player of it's time and as such a listener could amass a large collection of rolls. to help with this, the manufacturers started to offer cabinets dedicated to the storage of these rolls. Often they could be bought along side a piano and would be finished to match. The rolls in there cardboard cases would be stored on shelves with the ends sticking out so the labels could be read. Below is a photo of some rolls being stored in a player piano roll cabinet.
The heyday of the player piano was from the 1900's to 1929. Two things that lead to the fall in popularity was the rise of the phonograph as well as the collapse of the stock market in 1929. It is hard to be much more specific with the dating of this cabinet, so I figured 1920 was as good a guess as any.

The cabinet is made up of Birch that has been stained to simulate Mahogany. the secondary wood on the cabinet is Poplar. Below are two photos of the cabinet as it came to me.

The cabinet was in good shape structurally, but the finish was in pretty bad shape. In addition, there was some mold growing on the panels of the doors. The knobs had been replaced with porcelain knobs and the casters were missing. After attempting to restore the finish, I decided that the best thing to do was to refinish the cabinet. The customer and I also decided to add bun feet and new knobs as well. below are some photos of the initial work on the cabinet.

These first few photos show the addition of the bun feet. The feet were first mounted on boards to provide additional stability. this also gave the cabinet a little lift allowing the feet to be seen. Otherwise the feet would have been recessed into the bottom and hardly noticeable. Here are the feet mounted on their boards.
This next photo shows the feet installed. They were later stained to match the cabinet.
These next few photos show the cabinet after the finish was removed and then after staining. The stain makes the cabinet look pretty dark, but when the finish is added the color lightens up.

First, the drawers.
Here are the doors with the finish removed.
The doors after staining.
Here is the cabinet with the finish removed...
...And again, after staining!
I will post some photos of the completed cabinet next week.