Piano maker
 Klaviermanufaktur in Paris |
In 1807 Pleyel increased his business ventures with the "Maison Pleyel" piano manufactory. With the help of Etienne-Nicholas Méhul and Jean Henri Pape the founder's company expanded rapidly. Pleyel's pianos, with their English action, were particularly appreciated by the composers of the Romantic period, such as Chopin, and later by Rubinstein, Grieg and Cortot. |
 Klaviermanufaktur in Paris |
It appears from a letter of Pleyel to his son Camille that he already built fifty pianos in 1808, and in 1834 one thousand instruments left the manufactory. Pleyel's oldest son first learnt piano-building in London, and then in his father's factory; he joined the company in 1815 and took it over in 1824. |
| Camille Pleyel was followed by Auguste Wolff (1821 - 1887), a piano virtuoso and teacher at the Paris conservatoire, and then by Gustave Lyon (1857 - 1936), who managed the company until 1930. By that time some 1,500 families were supported by the Pleyel piano manufactory. |
| The piano manufactory was purchased in 1998 by Hubert Martigny |