Henry C. Marx

 

I find this fellow to be very intriguing. His early patent work showed him to be associated with the Phonoharp Co., and some of his early products had labels that stated H. C. Marx, and gave his address as 150 Liverpool Street, the same address as Phonoharp. I'd love to know what their business relationship was. His company later did business in Chicago as Marx & Marx, then in New Troy, Michigan, as the Marxochime Colony. (The last assets of the Marxochime Colony were liquidated in 1991 - some of the remaining stock was then sold by Elderly Instruments.) His crowning achievement was probably the Celestaphone or Marxophone, which is a great instrument that deserves a page all of its own. (real soon now…)

More to come... for now here's a gallery of some interesting Marx instruments.

Pianophone

An early Marx & Marx Chicago product

Pianolin

A bowed instrument

Marxochime - separate boxes for chords and bowed strings

Guitar Chimes

Chords & xylophone bars!

And be sure to check out the Violin-Uke page for plenty of information on that most famous of Marx products.

Late news… I've recently been able to locate quite a few experimental prototypes that had been in the factory for many years and were liquidated at the factory sale. It's simply fascinating to study what they were working on, much of which apparently never saw the light of day as a selling product. Pictures and analysis to follow, eventually… 

 

Drop me a line.

Go back to the Guitar-Zither Clearinghouse, or home.

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