This post features a Wagner and Levien advertising cover from Mexico City in 1927. Its among a small number of international advertising covers for music businesses in my collection. Of course, advertising covers date back to the middle of the nineteenth century. The advent of envelopes (first U.S. patent dates from 1849) also brought about the possibility of decorating them with logos and eye-catching designs. Inevitably, business saw an opportunity for advertising. Such used envelopes are, in philatelic terms, advertising covers. Learn more at this helpful site. You can find a variety of articles featuring advertising covers on this site, including one for the Ordway advertising cover for a music store in Hagerstown, Maryland.
A. Wagner & Levien
The advertising cover is for the music store A. Wagner & Levien in Mexico City. Wonderfully, the music store still exists! According to the website, the music store began in 1851 by Agustín Wagner and Guillermo Levien. This certainly makes it the oldest music store in Mexico! Wagner and Levien were originally from Hamburg, Germany. Their business was originally building and repairing pianos. In addition, the business grew to include all manner of musical products from sheet music to instruments. There are also instruments bearing labels for the music store including mandolins and violins.
ca. 1925
D.R. Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México
Today the store is the Repertorio Wagner. Its current store is Bolívar 41, in the Historic Center of Cuauhtémoc, CDMX Mexico. Learn more in this Spanish-language article.
The Pan-American Band Instrument & Case Co.
The cover bears the address of the Pan-American Band Instrument & Case Company of Elkhart, Indiana. The C. G. Conn company was a leading band instrument company at the time, but wanted an inexpensive student line. As a result, In 1917, Conn launched the Pan-American brand. Specifically, the Pan-American line was making inexpensive brass and woodwind instruments to sell to school bands. It also was a way for the company to develop retail sales through stores (like Wagner and Levien) beyond its traditional mail-order business. The Pan-American name was in use until 1955.
The Cover
The advertising cover has the name of the company across the top. Additionally, it also states that the company has a large “repertoire” of print music and of instruments. On the left of the envelope, there is also an image of the impressive multi-story music store in Mexico City. The word “Pianos,” significantly, is in large letters at the top of the store (and again half way down). This certainly suggests the importance of the piano trade to the music store.
In the upper right hand corner of the envelope is a ten centavo Pan-American postal congress stamp from 1926 (Scott number MX 661). It is tied to the cover with a Mexico City (D. F. – District Federales) cancellation and a banner celebrating national products of Mexico. It is a really wonderful piece of music history from Mexico City!
Finally, I was able to find this video featuring a guitar that has a label for Repertorio Wagner, the current name of the music store. It is a beautiful little sounding instrument.
