Story: Workshop industries

Piano workshop, Dunedin

Piano workshop, Dunedin

Pianos were heavy and expensive to import to New Zealand, so Frederick Howell's piano-making workshop in Dunedin was able to survive for almost 50 years from the 1860s. However by 1898, when this photograph was taken, local manufacturing costs were rising while the cost of imported instruments was dropping. Howell's workshop went out of business about 10 years later. Most other workshops making handcrafted products for local sale disappeared around the same period.

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Hocken Library, University of Otago
Reference: S09-350a

Permission of the Hocken Library Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago, must be obtained before any re-use of this image. Further information may be obtained from the Library through its website.

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How to cite this page:

Ian Hunter, 'Workshop industries - The first New Zealand workshops', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/26028/piano-workshop-dunedin (accessed 19 March 2024)

Story by Ian Hunter, published 11 Mar 2010