Golden Throated International



Beginning in 1926, the International Piano Company Limited, Listowel, Ontario sold the Golden Throated International phonograph through its agents, among which F.P. Partridge, 141 King Street West, Weston, Ontario and the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited, 312 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario. The manufacturer of the phonograph is unknown although it may well have been a company such as The George McLagan Furniture Co., Limited in Stratford, Ontario. Through all of the advertising for the upright model of this phonograph, a single line art illustration was used. The illustration shows an ornamental applique on the front of the cabinet above the horn opening while the actual phonograph (see photographs below) is missing this decoration.

Beginning in late 1926, the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited used the same illustration to advertise its Ultra-phonic phonograph. (See Ultra-phonic page).

In July, 1926, the Hardy-Lusby Company Limited, a well-known piano firm in Windsor, Ontario, took over the stores of the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited, primary agent of the International Piano Company Limited.

In a report in the Kitchener Daily Record dated June 14, 1928, on a court case involving the theft of a $725.00 piano from the International Piano Company, the close connection between the International Piano Company and the Ontario Piano and Music Company was revealed with only four members in the firm.

On August 4, 1928, the Brantford Expositor reported that three piano firms had crashed and faced bankruptcy - Hardy-Lusby Piano Company, the Listowel Piano Company (Internationa Piano Company Limited) and the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited. All were in the hands of liquidators. "The failure of the piano firms involved the Manufacturers Finance Company because it functioned as their discounting agency. The books of the Finance Company showed one company as owing it $605,000, a second $996,000, and the third $164,000 [for a combined total of $1.7 million dollars]".

Montreal Gazette, September 24, 1928, p. 11: "Clarence Hemond vs Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited - Judgment for $760.00."

On October 29, 1928, the Windsor Star reported that W.N. MacDonald, former manager of the Manufacturers Finance Company, was arrested in his home and "charged with obtaining half a million dollars by fraud during the past three years from the Trust and Guarantee Co., Ltd."

All advertising by the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited ended abruptly in late October, 1928. Presumably they and International Piano Company and Hardy-Lusby Piano Company were out of business.



Owen Sound Daily Sun Times, August 15, 1925, p. 5. International Piano Company Limited acquired a factory in Listowel, Ontario.




Winnipeg Free Press Prairie Farmer, November 18, 1925, p. 50. "This instrument is made especially for us by one of the largest phonograph factories."




Windsor Star, July 24, 1926, p. 5. Hardy-Lusby piano company took over the stores of the Ontario Piano and Music Company Limited, primary agent of the International Piano Company Limited.



Times and Guide (Weston, Ontario), September 22, 1926, p. 8.



Ottawa Citizen, October 19, 1926, p. 7.



Ottawa Citizen, October 22, 1926, p. 5.



Ottawa Citizen, October 30, 1926, p. 5. An ad for an "International Face Puzzle Contest" by International Piano Co. Ltd. through its agent Ontario Piano & Music Co. Ltd.



Ottawa Citizen, April 9, 1927, p. 14 and September 27, 1927, p. 18. Through all of 1927, Ontario Piano & Music Co. Ltd. ran numerous small ads, almost weekly, for player piano rolls and Apex Electrophonic records. In 1928 the ads were for used organs.



Ottawa Citizen, June 23, 1927, p. 14.



Kitchener Daily Record, June 14, 1928, p. 1.



Brantford Expositor, August 4, 1928, p. 3.



Windsor Star, August 8, 1928, p. 3.



Kitchener Daily Record, August 1, 1928, p. 12.



Windsor Star, October 29, 1928, p. 1.




Robin Smith sent this example which sold on Marketplace in 2022. Originally purchased in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.




Also for sale on Marketplace in 2022. Listed in Milton, Ontario. Console model. Height 35 inches, width 39 inches, depth 23 inches.




For sale through Kijiji in 2023.




Listed in Toronto in 2023.




Listed on Facebook Marketplace in Ste-Catherine, Quebec in 2023.

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