While web surfing, I spent today eyeing this old relic for sale: an upright piano. It was made in 1885 by famed Chickering & Sons (serial #71147).
Adorned with traceries and beautifully crafted in rosewood, it reticently echoes a romance, perhaps, of La Belle Époque. I particularly like its fallboard letterings.
First and third Picture by J.P. Dalbera; second by ChihPing
These two beautiful pianos are grand pianos owned and used by Franz Liszt, and are currently housed in the Franz Liszt Museum in Budapest, Hungary. The pianos themselves were made by Chickering & Sons, the oldest piano manufacturer in the United States (Jonas Chickering started his company in 1823).
The first grand piano (serial #30,540; first two photos) was made in 1867. At the Paris Exposition of 1867, this same piano was so impressive in its sound and craftsmanship that it won the Imperial Cross of the Legion of Honor (La Légion d'honneur). After this exposition, it was given as a present to Franz Liszt, who even then was a famed and widely-celebrated Romantic virtuoso pianist and a composer.
The second grand piano (serial #50,080; third photo) was made in 1879 especially for Franz Liszt. The actual recording of this piano can be seen by clicking the Youtube video.
The artistry expressed on the cabinets of these pianos is just breathtaking.
Aestheticism is the late 19th century art movement that opposed the pre-valent and overly formal Victorian bourgeois conventions of the day. It is closely linked to Symbolism, Art Nouveau, and later, Modernism.
The aesthetes argued that art exists only for the sake of its beauty, and does not need to serve any other purpose.
