Upright Cabinet Styles in American Piano Manufacturing, 1880–1930

Martha Taylor

rom about 1880 to 1930, when piano manufacturing was one of the nation’s most important industries, pianos were produced in a staggering array of cabinet styles, many of them highly intricate, embellished, and decorated, others dull and pedestrian. The cabinet styles were closely related to the social and economic climates of that period — to changes in values in an emerging consumer culture, and to economic cycles that affected the quantity, styles, and quality of the pianos made during that time. This article is an overview of those styles, and their historical context, as they pertain to upright pianos.

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This 1892 Henry F. Miller is an example of the supreme achievement of the cabinet maker’s art.