History Of Girgi & Vitak?

[sheri]

Hello - My father is giving me my grandfather's concertina (I posted a note under the repair section for suggestions of repair). I don't have it yet. I just got a description of it and wonder if anyone has any history on this type of concertina: Maker is Gorgi & Vitak (Chicago, circa 1938?), name is "Pearl Queen". It has 22 buttons on one side and 29 buttons on the other (count may be slightly off). It is approximately 9w x 9h x 10d. Eager to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

[Brian Humphrey]

Sheri,

 

A brief web search turned up some interesting information, especially for me because of the trail to my old home state.

 

Pearl Queen concertinas were considered to be among the best chemnitzer concertinas. The Pearl Queen concertinas apparently bore a few different names of manufacturers or resellers during their history, "Gorgi and Vitak" among them.

 

In the parlance of chemnitzer players, your grandfather's concertina would be designated a 102 key concertina (51 buttons x 2 notes per button = 102). The most common sizes for chemnitzers appear to have been 76 key and 102 key, but larger instruments also exist.

 

In one of my replies to your concertina repair question, I gave you Jerry Minar's name as a repair person, and I mentioned that he took over the manufacture of Hengel concertinas. Well ... there is a Pearl Queen connection here:

 

Christy Hengel, of New Ulm, Minnesota, bought out [for $1500!] the old Chicago company that made Pearl Queen concertinas, including a stockpile of parts and apparently some machinery. He made his first Hengel concertina in 1957, reportedly of Pearl Queen parts. So, the much-sought after Hengel concertinas could be considered descendants of Pearl Queen. And now for the next link:

 

Christy Hengel taught Jerry Minar of New Prague, Minnesota, how to make Hengel concertinas about 1995, and then retired. This information raises the question of whether Jerry Minar may still be using machinery or parts from the old Pearl Queen company.

 

A web search for "Pearl Queen Concertina" should turn up most of the information above. The http://www.concertinamusic.com web site appears to be a great place to start browsing.

 

There is even a listing of Pearl Queen serial numbers (I didn't explore it yet). With the serial number in hand, we could hope that addtional information about your grandfather's concertina may be available.

 

For a sample of the information I found, and a couple of images of Pearl Queen concertinas from old ads and catalogs, click on the links below:

 

Pearl Queen

 

More Pearl Queen

 

Still More Pearl Queen

 

Pearl Queen Ad

 

Others may have further news for you, and I expect that folks involved with the chemnitzer web sites suggested by Jim Lucas in reply to your concertina repair posting could provide a wealth of information.

 

Brian

 

(edited for syntax)

Edited August 7, 2004 by Brian Humphrey

[JimLucas]

For a sample of the information  I found, and a couple of images of Pearl Queen concertinas from old ads and catalogs,...

Pearl Queens also show up on eBay fairly regularly. Here is one on auction right now.

[Stephen Chambers]

I visited Chemnitz twice in 2001, in connection with the Schlossberg Museum's "Sehnsucht aus dem Blasebalg" exhibition, and was taken to see various old factories & workshops in the Chemnitz region by Peer Ehmke from the Museum. One of them was the former premises of Otto Schlicht, who was the actual maker of the Pearl Queen concertinas. Both the 102-note and 104-note Chemnitzers were special models for the U.S. market.

 

You can see a photograph of a 104-note Pearl Queen here on the "Sehnsucht aus dem Blasebalg" website, if you first click on "Galerie", and then on "US-amerikanische Hersteller", but the text is in German.

Edited August 7, 2004 by Stephen Chambers

[Brian Humphrey]

According to a timeline on the www.concertinamusic.com web site, Otto Schlicht began producing chemnitzers in the United States in 1917, so Sheri's grandfather's concertina could have been made in Chicago, if the 1938 date is correct. That would also explain how Christy Hengel could have bought the Otto Schlicht equipment in Chicago, to begin making his own concertinas.

[Brian Humphrey]

Sheri,

 

Loren Schlaeffler states on his home page that he is a friend of Christy Hengel:

http://www.newulmtel.net/~lorens/index.html

 

With Christy as a source, Loren may have further information about the Otto Schlicht company, Georgi and Vitak, and Pearl Queen concertinas. At the bottom of Loren’s web page is his contact information. If you haven't connected with the Chemnitzer folks yet, Loren may be a good person to help you.

 

I did some more web surfing, and here is what I found:

 

1. “Georgi & Vitak Music Co.” was a previous topic on CNet. under Concertina History. In that previous thread, Wes Williams posted the following:

 

“Quote from the site below:

Around 1900, Otto Schlicht came to America from Germany, bringing with him a vast knowledge of concertina repair and servicing. He began building Chemnitzer concertinas in 1917. Soon Schlicht was supplying concertinas to Patek's Music Store in Chicago, under the name Patek; the Vitak-Elsnic Music Company, as Pearl Queen, and Kosatkas House of Music in Berwyn, Illinois, with the name "Peerless."

http://www.polamjournal.com/polka/chemnitz.html “

 

2. From a web page describing a Cerveny euphonium (a kind of tuba), which lists Georgi and Vitak as the importer: http://www.glo.gis.iastate.edu/fam/cerveny.html

 

· Georgi & Vitak, 4663 Gross (now McDowell) Ave., Chicago, Ill.

· At this address from 1907 to 1923

· Listed in business directories at other Chicago addresses in 1906-1907 and 1928-1929

· Perhaps assembled at Vitak & Georgi from parts shipped from Cerveny factory in Bohemia (see Letter to the Editor in TUBA Journal, Fall 1991, page 6)

· Georgi & Vitak company was best known as importer of concertinas

 

3. From the SESAC web site, a performing rights organization founded in 1930:

http://www.sesac.com/repertory/asp/rpublis...&mSearchString=

 

SESAC lists the Georgi and Vitak Music Company at 4815 Ashland Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60609-4234. The presence of a zip code gives hope that the Georgi and Vitak Music Company survived into the 1960’s, although Pearl Queen concertinas did not.

 

4. From a photo caption on Loren Schaeffler’s web site:

http://www.newulmtel.net/~lorens/silber.html

 

The text indicates that the Georgi-Vitak Music Company was formed before the Vitak-Elsnic Company, and that the Vitak-Elsnic Company was formed around 1926. The caption also says that: “The owners of the Georgi and Vitak Music company's names were Otto Georgi and Louis Vitak.”

 

5. Louis Vitak is listed as a music arranger on some Chemnitzer concertina music listed by the Google search engine.

 

6. From Brown’s Music, 2212 S. Broadway, New Ulm MN: http://www.brownsmusic.com

 

Brown’s Music claims to have thousands of selections of Chemnitzer concertina music. Their list of music books from the Vitak-Elsnic company appears to include some Georgi-Vitak publications.

 

A side note: Brown’s music is a source for two Chemnitzer instruction books: the “Silberhorn Concertina Method” (the classic Chemnitzer instruction book), and their own supplement to the Silberhorn book, the “Brown Concertina Method”.

Edited August 7, 2004 by Brian Humphrey

[sheri]

Thank you all for your research and comments. I did search for information on the web, but got no where near what you all came up with! Thank you very much! I am so glad to hear that there are people who know the specific instrument and can fix it accordingly. I am looking forward to learning how to play it after it is fixed!

Thanks-Sheri

[JimLucas]

I am looking forward to learning how to play it after it is fixed!

Sheri, I'm curious. Do you have any recordings of your grandfather's playing, or just memories?