ABSTRACT
The Sabel Company, a Swiss piano manufacturing firm, was founded by Bonifaz Bieger (1820-1870), a German immigrant. Bieger started with a small piano workshop in Hggenswil and moved to Rorschach in 1856. After the founder's death in 1870 his three sons headed the company. The annual production of pianos grew steadily to almost three hundred by 1919, when the firm was bought by Lorenz Sabel (d. 1941), who had worked in the Bieger company since 1908. Under the new name of Sabel, the production of pianos rose to 450 per year between 1920 and 1930. As with other companies, the depression and World War II brought a decline. In 1948 the firm was converted into a holding company, Sabel AG. The annual production again reached about 280 pianos from 1960 onward. The competitive market worldwide, however, forced the company to halt its production completely in 1991.
