International studio (34.1908)

Decorative Art m Piano Cases


LOUIS XVI GRAND PIANO
DECORATED IN LOW TONE COLORS
UPON GRAY AND WHITE ENAMEL
ECORATIVE ART IN PIANO
CASES WITH SOME STEIN WAY
EXAMPLES
BY J. BURR TIFFANY
The revival of the fine arts in piano cases is not
an artificial reaction against the ugliness of the
Victorian piano (than which nothing uglier has ever
been conceived), but it is as it should be, the natural
expression of man’s love for the beautiful. Happy
is a country, as to her present beauty and ever-
lasting renown, when her men of high place and
great wealth are, as it w7ere, born artists, when
nothing offensive to the eye is tolerated, when no
commercial considerations are allowed to outweigh
the supreme obligation of making every human
work that is to be seen sightly and gracious and fit
and of due proportion. We know that this was the
happy state of the great centers of Italian civiliza-
tion in the end of the fifteenth and the beginning
of the sixteenth centuries. What a living link with
a most ancient past are these beautiful musical
instruments as they are left to us!
A harpsichord belonging to the Strozzi family
of Florence is shown in illustration. The case of
the instrument is wholly in gilt, decorated with

STEINWAY & SONS
NEW YORK


LOUIS XV PARLOP GRAND PIANO STEINWAY
WATTEAU DECORATIONS & SONS


CXVIII