Mason & Hamlin Organ Company Certificate 1880

Beautifully engraved warranty certificate from the Mason & Hamlin Organ Company issued in 1880. This historic document was printed by the American Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with vignettes of allegorical men and women and pictures of all the different awards the company has won. This item has the printed signature of the comapny name and is over 123 years old.








Back of Certificate



Founded in Boston (not far from the current facility) in 1854 by Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin, Mason & Hamlin got its start producing a reed organ that offered a variety of instrumental sounds. As the reed organ began to fall out of favor towards the end of the century, Mason & Hamlin commenced piano production.

Henry Mason and Emmons Hamlin had uniquely complimentary skills that led to the creation of distinctive, well received pianos. Mason was an accomplished pianist who was heir to a substantial musical legacy. His father, Lowell Mason, was the long-time head of the Boston Academy of Music and an early pioneer in introducing music into the public school system. Hamlin was a creative mechanic who approached design problems with originality and flair. The combination of talents led to the development of the patented Mason & Hamlin tension resonator, a metal reinforcing device designed to maintain the crown of the soundboard and enhance sound projection.

As piano makers began aligning themselves with noted artists at the turn of the century, Mason & Hamlin was at the forefront. Virtuosos including Rachmaninoff, Ossip Grabreilwitsch, and Harold Bauer performed regularly with Mason & Hamlin pianos. In 1910 the flourishing firm was acquired by George Gale Foster and became the flagship of his American Piano Company, which also produced Chickering, Weber, George Steck, and Knabe.

With the demise of the player piano and the advent of the Great Depression, U.S. piano sales dropped to 30,000 units in 1930, from a high of 323,000 in 1924. Like all other piano firms, American Piano was locked in a struggled for survival and was forced to consolidate all its manufacturing operations at a plant in East Rochester, New York.