American Foundation (Inc.) v. United States

19 C.C.P.A. 36, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 267
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedApril 27, 1931
DocketNo. 3400
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 19 C.C.P.A. 36 (American Foundation (Inc.) v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Foundation (Inc.) v. United States, 19 C.C.P.A. 36, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 267 (ccpa 1931).

Opinion

Bland, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Customs Court, Division One (one judge dissenting), which overruled appellant’s protest, which protest was directed to the collector’s classification of merchandise entered at the port of Jacksonville, Fla.

The importation consisted of a carillon, its accessories, and pa cluing, and is described in the collector’s letter of transmittal of the protest, as follows:

[37]*37Carillon of 48 notes, consisting of 61 bells varying in diameters from 8 feet 6 inches to 8 inches with inscription, classified under paragraph 1443, value_■_$60, 172. 00
Clappers, hand claviers, practice clavier, steel fráme and connections, and electric pneumatic automatic relaying apparatus for above, value_»— 21, 799. 00
Packing carillon and accessories_ 2, 000. 00
Rate of duty, 40% equaling_ 33, 688. 40

The entry of appellant contains substantially the same matter as above quoted.

Duty was assessed on the merchandise at 40 per centum ad valorem under the provisions of paragraph 1443 of the Tariff Act of 1922, for musical instruments and parts thereof. The protest was amended, and the right to amend was an issue before the court below but is not pressed here. The amended protest claims the goods to be free of duty under paragraph 1706, Tariff Act of 1922.

The record shows that Edward W. Bok, now deceased, was the editor of the Ladies Home Journal and vice president of the Curtis Publishing Co. and that, after his retirement, he caused to be organized the American Foundation and heavily endowed it for the purpose of philanthropic work; that Mr. Bok purchased between 40 and 50 acres of land at Mountain Lake, Lake Wales, Polk County, Fla., where he had a winter home, and that the tract of ground "was the-highest point in the State of Florida, and that thereafter it was developed as a sanctuary and was planted with native plants and made a place of rest for the public; that in 1925 the sanctuary was turned over to the American Foundation; that after the sanctuary was completed, Mr. Bok conceived the idea of constructing on the tract of ground the so-called “singing tower” with which this importation is concerned; that Mr. Bok was a native of Flanders where so-called “singing towers” had been developed to a fine state of perfection more than 100 years prior to the manufacture of the importation at bar; that Taylor & Co. of Loughborough, England, aré makers of carillons and that these English bell makers had revived the industry of making caiillons which were placed in high towers which served as bell houses.

Concerning the character of the bells, one Henry M. Nornavell, an Englishman, who had been acquainted -with Edward W. Bok since 1917 and had met him in France or Belgium, and who, at the time of testifying, was the director of the Mountain Lake Sanctuary and Singing Tower, and who stated that he had studied the development and history of the carillon, testified, in part, as follows:

Q. Now how is a carillon tuned? — A. It is tuned in the chromatic scale.
Q. How are its overtones and undertones tuned? — A. They are all tuned with each other.
[38]*38Q. Then to start with, in order to make a carillon, bell maker must make a bell of five tones to have each one tune with each other? — A. Yes; and each bell must be tuned with each other.
Q. Wliat is the difference between the tuning of a carillon and a chime as known? — A. A chime is a set of bells struck or rung successively; they are usually a set or 8 or 12 bells. They are tuned in the diatonic scale.
Q. Can you play an ordinary musical composition on a chime? — A. No.
Q. Can you, on a carillon? — A. Yes.
Q. Did you say the development of carillons first came in the Low Countries?— A. In the Low Countries; yes.
Q. For what purpose were they developed? — A. Well they were developed from clocks, they gave little runs of the bells and finally developed into a musical instrument on which any musical composition can be played; all music is not adapted to the musical tones.
Q. There has been offered in evidence a book on carillons from the Taylor Bell Foundry of Loughborough, England; that was which carillon; will you describe the particular weight and size? — A. This carillon had 61 bells; when it first came out the last 13 or smaller bells were duplicated; 48 tones were in there.
Q. There were 48 tones? — A. There were 48 tones.
Q. What is the size of the largest bell? — A. It was approximately 11 tons, and varied to 11 pounds.
Q. What is the size of the largest bell? — A. 11 tons.
Q. Do you remember its diameter?- — A. Approximately 8 feet, 8 feet high.
Q. It is stated in this memorandum from the Taylor Bell Foundry (át p. 5 of the book) that “The development of the modern carillon — i. e., the extended chromatic compass of bells — may be said to have begun about the end of the sixteenth century, and was the work almost entirely of bell founders in the Low Countries known now as Holland and Belgium.” Is that in accordance with the information and knowledge that you gained from other sources? — A. It was.
Q. And those are the facts? — A. Yes.
Q. It is also stated that “The culmination of that era of carillon art was reached at the latter half of the seventeenth century, as instanced in the work of Francis and Peter Ilemony. In the early eighteenth century some quite good work was done, but that the craft was already on the wane aesthetically and the carillons possessing any artistic merit which were founded in the following 200 years were very few indeed. That the revival of the craft in the present century to a glory greater than ever will be evidenced later.” Would you say as the result of your investigation of the history of the making of carillons that this statement is correct? — -A. Yes.
Q. In other words, as I take it then, the making of carillons became practically extinct for several hundred years? — A. They had.
* ❖ * * * * *
Q. Is the carillon at Mountain Lake of which you are in charge a substantial copy in kind of the carillons of the Low Countries? — A. It is.
Q. Is it a substantial copy, then, of the work of art developed in the Low Countries in the Middle Ages and later? — A. It is. [Italics ours.]

On cross-examination, the witness further testified as follows:

Q. Are you a musician, Major? — A. I don’t play any musical instrument.
Q. Will you state whether you have ever studied the theory of music? — A. I have not.
Q. You have seen a carillon of bells before and since its installation? — A. Yes.
[39]*39Q.

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19 C.C.P.A. 36, 1931 CCPA LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-foundation-inc-v-united-states-ccpa-1931.