Decker Brothers was an American

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

that operated from 1865 until about 1900. It was founded by brothers David and John Decker, holders of many piano

patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

. Its headquarters were located in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, in the John H. Edelmann-designed Decker Building, which is today on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1878, ''The New York Times'' wrote that Decker Brothers pianos had "a wide spread and enviable reputation for their superior quality". They had typical late square action and dampers, but very good scaling ahead of its day. The company ended its operations at the death of one of the brothers around the turn of the 20th century. A 1996 reference guide said the pianos are of equal quality as those of Steinway & Sons and Chickering and Sons, and although they sell for less, they still command more than double the price of an average piano of that era.Pierce, Bob and Larry Ashley, ''Pierce Piano Atlas.'' 1996. In 2008, an 1874 Decker Brothers piano was said to have "the most unusual design in the bass" because the strings go under the plate at the tuning pin end with the tuning pin sticking up through a hole, perhaps to get the string coil closer to the pinblock and so to have more of the tuning pin actually in the pinblock.

References

{{reflist Piano manufacturing companies of the United States Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in New York City Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City