KASRIEL – the last French harmonium makers

Kasriel

Louis-Maurice KASRIEL (1815-1899) was a musical instrument maker who was born in Krotoschin, Prussia – today’s Krotoszyn in Poland.

In 1839, he started a company in Paris that would specialise in making harmoniums, harmoniflutes and guide-chants. Louis Maurice Kasriel was married to Sara KAHN. The company was awarded medals for the portable harmoniums and harmoniflutes constructed, including a gold at the 1878 Paris Exhibition and a silver for the Paris Exhibition in 1900. Their son Edouard (1839-1882) had represented the company in Saint-Louis (USA) and in France, but moved into painting and had already died when his father Louis Maurice passed away in 1899. Therefore, in 1900 the company was continued by the grandchildren – Louis Kasriel and his cousin Albert Freitag under the name Les Petits-Fils de Maurice Kasriel. The company seems to have started making regular harmoniums at around that time.

Before the outbreak of WW1, the company grew, expanded and acquired other businesses. It bought the Louis Kuster free metal reed factory. It also bought the Chaperon harmonium manufacturing business, thereby acquiring the brands Cottino, Christophe & Étienne and Rodolphe & Debain. Louis Kariel submitted a patent in 1936 in France relating to improvements on transposing or non-transposing harmoniums. Then he submitted another in 1938 for an accordion mechanism.

Between 1943 and 1945, Kasriel’s descendants were deported and exterminated in Nazi concentration camps.

Following the end of the Second World War, the remaining heirs passed over the management of the company to the Pisson-Brunet family, who owned the company Elcké – a supplier of pianos and singing guides to the French Ministry of Education.

It is estimated that Kasriel produced a total of around 80,000 instruments. After 150 years of production, in 1984, it finally closed its doors as the last French harmonium manufacturer.

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E. Rittershausen, Berlin

One of the beautiful stories of mythology tells of the way the first musical instrument was suggested. As the story runs, as Orpheus was walking along the shores of the sea, his foot struck a reed that had been cast up by the waters, and had dried in the sun. The reed gave forth a soft, sweet sound as it was made to vibrate by the stroke of Orpheus’ foot and the result was the lyre or hand-harp of the ancient Egyptians. A similar story, and probably the same one adapted to the wind instruments, is that of Lucretius which says that “the simple flute had its origin from the breathing of western winds over certain reeds,” and thus was suggested the musical pipe, or simple tube, which has developed into one of the most fascinating of instruments.

The most elaborate and beautiful collection of flutes ever displayed in the United States, and probably in the world, was seen by visitors to the German section of the Columbian Exposition. The display was that of E. Rittershausen, of Berlin. It was arranged in a large, square glass case, and consisted of flutes made of various woods, of Ebonite and of sterling silver. The Rittershausen flutes are the standard of the world, and have received the indorsement of the best performers upon this favorite instrument. Until 1832 the flute was not regarded as a perfect instrument. In that year Theobald Boehm, of Munich, brought the instrument to such a degree of perfection as to make it one of the most prominent of orchestral and solo instruments. The Rittershausen flutes are made exactly upon the Boehm system, and with such wondrous skill and delicacy of workmanship as to have long since become the favorite of discriminating flutists. It is, in fact, the instrument universally referred to when the Boehm flute is desired.

Like the illustrious Boehm, Mr. Rittershausen is also a virtuoso as well as a manufacturer, devoting his entire faculties to the production of a perfect flute. By his own practical skill he is enabled to appreciate the many details and requirements in the construction of such an instrument as is demanded by the most fastidious virtuoso. This, it will readily be seen, is an invaluable consideration in the selection of a flute by a skilled performer. And in the rapid progress of musical culture of America, there are many lovers of the beautiful instrument who are its admirers and enthusiastic students at the present time.

Living in the musical city of Berlin, Mr. Rittershausen is thrown in personal contact with the greatest flutists of Europe, thereby receiving many suggestions from them that are of incalculable benefit in the manufacture of his instruments. The Rittershausen factory is located at 107 Bergmann street, Berlin, and its product has been famous from the establishing of the present business in 1870. Each year adds largely to the number of Rittenhausen-Boehm flutes in use in America, and they have received the highest testimonials from the most famous composers and performers in this country as well as those abroad. The American representative of the Rittershausen flutes is Mr. Carl Fischer, No. 6 Fourth Avenue, New York.

Musical Instruments at the World’s Columbian Exposition – Frank D. Abbottt, Charles A. Daniell – 1895 – P. 200