Mason & Risch--Canadian Antique Phonograph Project

From The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (Author Carl Morey):

"A leading Canadian piano manufacturing firm established in 1871 in Toronto by the former A & S. Nordheimer accountant Thomas G. Mason, with Vincent M. Risch and Octavius Newcombe. During its first six years it imported and sold music and instruments. Risch supervised piano tuning and repairs. The first piano was built in 1877. A year later the Mason-Risch-Newcombe partnership was dissolved, and Mason & Risch continued their business association, developing a cross-country retail chain (which later included the distribution of records and talking machines) and making extensive sales abroad. .. In 1948 it was sold to Winter & Co of the USA but continued to manufacture pianos in Toronto under the Mason & Risch name. The cross-Canada retail network was terminated with the closing in 1949 of the Vancouver outlet, but that same year Mason & Risch (Winter & Co) bought Sterling Action & Keys Co of Brantford, Ont. In 1959 the Winter family purchased the controlling interest in the US Aeolian Corp and set up Aeolian of Canada, a holding company for Mason & Risch. In 1969 Mason & Risch purchased the George Dansereau & Sons Lumber Mill in Grenville, Que. In 1971 the Sterling Action & Keys Co was closed, and in 1968 the Toronto factory was moved to new premises in Scarborough, from which it continued to manufacture Mason & Risch uprights until the early 1980s. After 1950, however, all grand and player pianos were manufactured in the USA and exported (to Canada and elsewhere) by Aeolian."

Canadian Music Trades Journal, October 1919, page 82: "Mason & Risch, Ltd., Toronto, are endeavouring to take care of at least a portion of the shortage of Victrolas by the manufacture of the Mason & Risch phonograph now being featured to the public and which is a product of their own phonograph factory."

Canadian Music Trades Journal, January 1913, p. 29. Calgary branch of Mason & Risch Ltd.

Toronto World, Oct. 19, 1919, p. 13. This is an early advertisement for Mason & Risch phonographs manufactured in their factory. The ad shows styles 124, 150, 175 and 225 (coincidentally they are the prices, like Edison's Amberola 30s, 50s, 60s and 75s):

Vancouver Sunday Sun, Nov. 1st and 4th, 1920, p. 40 (proof that sales hyperbole isn't a new phenomenon):

Calgary Herald, Nov. 25, 1920 page 14:

The Province (Vancouver), July 5, 1921, p. 17:

Vancouver Sun, Dec. 11 1921, page 34 showing style 'C':

Morning Leader, Dec. 15 1921 page 8, "Made, sold and guaranteed by us, at "From Factory to Home" prices":

Calgary Daily Herald, Dec. 5, 1922 page16:

Edmonton Journal, July 6, 1923 page 4:

Calgary Daily Herald, April, 7 1925 page 18:

Calgary Daily Herald, March 17, 1928 page 12 (looks like model 225 is now $37.50):

Calgary Daily Herald, Nov. 20, 1929 page 3 (prices collapsed after the stock market?):

Things weren't going so well in the Edmonton Journal, April 3, 1931 on page 25:

Style 175 (model No. 391) KW found at Aberfoyle Ontario, May 2012. It had Columbia works which I didn't bother to photograph:

Another mahogany Mason & Risch upright.

Sound box on a 'Sonograph' made for Canadian Phonograph in the Domenic DiBernardo Collection photographed by Cheryl Wright labeled 'Mason and Risch Toronto':