Octavius Newcombe was originally a partner in The Mason & Risch Piano Company of Toronto.  Mason & Risch was established in 1871 with the partnership of Newcombe with Thomas G. Mason and Vincent Rich. For a brief period during the late 19th Century, instruments were produced under the “Mason, Risch & Newcombe” brand name.  Newcombe left the firm in 1877 to build pianos and organs under his own name.

In 1878, Mr. Newcombe organized his new firm as “The Octavius Newcombe Piano Company”.  In 1900, the name of the company was changed to “The Newcombe Piano Company”. Newcombe built very high quality, durable pianos and player pianos which were mainly distributed throughout Canada and the United States. The Newcombe factory burned in 1926, and production stopped. The Newcombe name was purchased by Willis & Company of Montreal, and they continued to build pianos under the Newcombe name until 1960.