This article features a really wonderful Andreas Koch harmonica cover from 1904. The Andreas Koch Harmonika-Fabrik was an important manufacturer of the instrument in Trossingen in Germany. It was a rival to the Hohner instrument company in the same city.
Founded in 1867, the Andreas Koch Company took advantage of every possible avenue to market their products. The advent of envelopes (the first U.S. patent for an envelope is from 1849) brought on the possibility of decorating them with logos and eye-catching designs. Inevitably, businesses saw an opportunity for advertising. Such used envelopes are, in philatelic terms, advertising covers. Learn more at this helpful site.
I’ve already featured a number of advertising covers from my collection. One of my oldest was from the American piano manufacturer Chickering & Sons. Another with a vivid decoration is an example from the Noble & Cooley drum company. Then there are really fun examples from the Henry Dobson banjo company and the H.N. White brass instrument company.
The Andreas Koch cover in my collection visually stands up to the best of these featuring a wonderful harmonica with an amplifying horn. It is a wonderful piece!
Trossingen’s Harmonica Industry
According to town history, in 1830 Christian Messner, a weaver, saw a harmonica in the home of his neighbor, a clockmaker from Vienna. Messner copied the instrument and was soon making instruments to sell. Messner’s success led him to create a company along with relatives and friends that specialized in the manufacture of harmonicas. Then, as with other families, there was a disagreement and Messner’s nephew Christian Weiss set out on his own creating a second harmonica firm in Trossingen.
Over time, more companies began in order to compete for some of the market for the popular instrument. C. A. Seydel was founded in 1847 and is today the oldest continuous harmonica manufacturer in the world. Additionally, Matthias Hohner began his own harmonica company in 1857, growing his company into the largest harmonica manufacturer in the world. The company later went on to be a major manufacturer of all kinds of musical instruments including electric keyboards and guitars.
The city of Trossingen has been the center of harmonica production in the world since the middle of the nineteenth century. As a result, there is even a museum there dedicated completely to the history and many forms of the harmonica.
Andreas Koch Harmonika-Fabrik
from the Alan G. Bates Collection at the
National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota
Andreas Koch was born in 1844 and when it came time for him to find a trade he became an apprentice with Christian Messner. After completing his training, he began his own harmonica manufacturing firm in 1867. The Koch company grew fast and by 1873 had 27 employess and was producing more than 84,000 harmonicas a year. By 1901 the company had grown to employee more than three hundred people.
The company’s success led it to branch out into the production of accordions, a larger instrument that also used free reeds to produce sound. Koch brought in skilled makers from other cities, including Klingenthal, to launch this business. Koch’s five sons took over the business in 1905 and it continued to grow. A larger factory was necessary to continue to grow. The popularity of the harmonica in the United States led the company to create a New York branch under the control of Ernst Koch, while his four brothers remained in Trossingen.
By 1925, the firm had one thousand employees and was the second largest harmonica company in Trossingen. The Hohner company bought the company in 1928, continuing to operate the facility until the late twentieth century.
The Cover
The cover has a wonderful illustration of a Andreas Koch harmonica in the upper left hand corner. It is not just any harmonica, but one with a large metal amplifying horn. Such instruments were among the infinite variety of harmonicas and accessories that companies in Trossingen made in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Below this striking decorative feature, is the address for the Koch’s branch on Broadway in New York City. The date postmark is cleverly positioned coming out of the bell of the amplifying horn, which unfortunately obscures some of its details. However, the envelope clearly began its journey in New YOrk in 1904. The stamp is a one-cent green Benjamin Franklin, part of the Second Bureau Issue, which came out in 1903. The stamp is tied to the cover with a simple postmark of parallel striaght lines.
The recipient
One of the popular things about harmonicas is that they are inexpensive and small. As a result, they are popular as gifts and as toys for children. At some point in time, perhaps everyone owns a harmonica, even if they never play it. For this reason, harmonicas are not just for sale in musical instrument stores. They are often for sale in a wide variety of wholesale businesses. At the turn of the twentieth century this might include dry goods stores and pharmacies.
This envelope bears the address of F. M. Hilby of the Monterey Pharmacy in Monterey California. According to an 1899 history of Monterey, the Monterey Pharmacy was begun in 1869 by a Dr. J. R. Hadsell at the corner of Alvarado and Franklin streets in Monterey. In 1883, Francis M. Higby bought the store. This information is from the Peninsula Diary of Mayo Hayes O’Donnell from June 4, 1965. Additionally, this document continues to quote the 1899 history with the following lovely passage about the store:
“This complete and handsomely fitted emporium contains every article usually found in a first-class store of its kind. Not alone can be purchased here the purest drugs and chemicals, liquors for medicinal purposes and cigars, but stationery, toilet articles, light fishing tackle of the best quality and photographic supplies of various kinds, this store being the agency for Eastman Kodak, films, etc. Mr. Hilby is also the agent for all San Francisco dailies and periodicals.”
Now for a through back to my youth! Here is a great harmonica solo by Huey Lewis of Huey Lewis & The News. Enjoy!
