FEURICH SALES AND PRODUCTION BOOKS
For decades, these books were believed lost. Thanks to the wonderful help of Ms. Kluttig, we were able to look through these books at the Saxon State Archives – Leipzig State Archive in September 2017. More than 20 extensive books document the production of the important Julius Feurich piano factory in Leipzig very precisely.
They are the sales books and the production books, so that searches can be made chronologically, by customer and by serial number. In addition to fantastic details on every single Feurich instrument, they also contain valuable information on deliveries to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg, Hupfeld in Leipzig, J. D. Philipps in Frankfurt and much more.
Since Feurich was Welte’s most important and first supplier for the Welte-Mignon, concrete facts about the instruments supplied can now be researched for the first time. Deliveries for Luna (orchestrions) and Artist (=Mignon), which were made for Popper & Co, are also documented. This may also provide important clues about the recording grand pianos for the Welte-Mignon.
The production books contain all the work steps involved in manufacturing an instrument, explicitly recording the names of the 11 different workers.
Overall, the books are well preserved – but some of them have evidently been exposed to fire and are therefore very fragile and brittle. All the books had been undergoing restoration since 2019. They have now been digitized – and thanks to the kind support of the Saxon State Archives, we have been able to begin evaluating them.
FEURICH-WELTE-PHILIPPS-POPPER
The sales books document Feurich’s key role in the success story of both the Welte-Mignon and the Philipps DUCA.
Julius Feurich was also a close friend of Hugo Popper. According to the information in the sales books, it is very likely that Feurich supplied the grand piano backs for the later Welte-Mignon recording grand pianos to Hugo Popper in Leipzig. Feurich supplied a total of 12 grand piano backs to Hugo Popper. The first grand piano back, ser. no. 17385, on October 12, 1904. Subsequently: ser. nos. 17383 and 17384 on November 2, 1904, ser. no. 17386 on December 30, 1904, ser. nos. 17391 and 17393 on February 14, 1905, ser. no. 17394 on March 7, 1905, ser. nos. 17389 and 17390 on March 23, 1905, ser. nos. 17387, 17388, 17392 on May 2, 1905. According to these books, not a single grand piano back was delivered to M. Welte & Soehne in Freiburg. We list all the serial numbers in detail here in the hope of tracking down one of these grand pianos somewhere in the world. These instruments may well still exist – but perhaps without the recording technology?
Unfortunately, access to the books for 1902–1903 has not been possible to date – important clues to the beginnings of the Artist or Welte-Mignon may be found, especially in 1903.
Here are further details of important deliveries by Feurich, some of which document technical innovations:
First upright piano back to Welte
On September 7, 1904, the first “Klavierraste 132” (upright piano back) was delivered to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg*
*however, according to Feurich’s documentation this is the 7th delivery to Welte – further research is needed on this point
First grand piano back to Popper
On October 12, 1904, the first grand piano back was delivered to Hugo Popper in Leipzig
*further research is needed on this point, as Feurich did not number the deliveries to Popper & Co
Last Artist to Popper
On July 12, 1905, the last “Artist” (Popper’s trademark for “Mignon”) of 21 Artists supplied was delivered to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg*
*further research is needed on this point
Mignon with tuning keyboard to Welte
July 29, 1905 marks the start of deliveries of the “Mignon back with tuning keyboard” to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg
First American back
On November 5, 1907, the first so-called “American back with tuning keyboard” (ser. no. 20699) for a US version of the cabinet was delivered to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg
First back for a tall upright piano
On November 7, 1907, the first Feurich “Mignon back with full/large keyboard” (ser. no. 20717) was delivered to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg – the version for the tall upright piano with Welte technology above the back
First Stella to Popper
On April 25, 1908, the first Feurich “Stella” upright (ser. no. 21042) was delivered to Hugo Popper in Leipzig
First DUCA to Philipps
On August 6, 1908, the first DUCA (ser. no. 22737), an “upright in sapele mahogany with electric double candlesticks”, was delivered to J.D. Philipps in Frankfurt
First grand piano to Welte
On October 5, 1912, the first Feurich grand piano (ser. no. 27557) was delivered “for experimental purposes” to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg – the start of the availability of the Welte-Mignon built into grand pianos
First DUCARTIST to Philipps
On May 29, 1922, the first Feurich DUCARTIST upright (ser. no. 36171) was delivered to J.D. Philipps in Frankfurt
First Welte “Kombiniert”
On October 8, 1923, the first Feurich upright (ser. no. 38203) “kombiniert” (with foot operation) was delivered to M. Welte & Söhne in Freiburg
Based on the information available to us, we can look up when your Feurich instrument was built and when it was delivered to the respective maker of the player technology, e.g. Welte, Popper, Hupfeld or Philipps.
Further details will follow as soon as we regain access to the documents currently undergoing restoration.
General Note
We are grateful for voluntary contributions in recognition and support of our considerable financial and time investment in providing such documents in our “Treasure Trove” section – within the scope of Section 60c of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), expressly without any intention of making a profit. If you would like to support this voluntarily, you can do so here.