Minneapolis Institute of Art

Piano

Designer: Henry William Batley; Manufacturer: James Shoolbred & Co. (case); Manufacturer: Collard & Collard (movement)

Date

c. 1878

Medium

Satinwood, ivory, ebony, metal, and cloth

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

H. W. Batley, one of the great freelance designers of the 19th century, captured the exotic Anglo-Japanese aesthetic in his use of linear and naturalistic design elements. Shoolbred & Co. may have employed Japanese craftsmen to execute the exquisite carving. An attached music stand that ingeniously folds up into the cabinet and a commemorative silver plaque engraved with the piano's floral motifs, complete Batley, Shoolbred, and Collard & Collard's masterpiece, which has come to be a viewed as an icon of the Aesthetic Movement (1860-1880) in England. After its unveiling at the Paris Exposition Universalle in 1878, this piano made its way into private hands until being acquired by the Institute. A virtually identical model, made two years later, is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Europe

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