TREATMENT OF PIANO CASES
A professional pianist invariably prefers the case of his or her piano
left in its simple ebony or mahogany, and would not approve of its
being relegated to the furniture department and decorated accordingly,
any more than your violinist, or harpist, would hand over his violin,
or harp, for decoration.
When a piano, however, is not the centre of interest in a house, and
the artistic ensemble of decorative line and colour is, the piano case
is often ordered at the piano factory to be made to accord in line
with the period of the room for which it is intended, after which it
is decorated so as to harmonise with the colours in the room. This can
be done through the piano factory; but in the case of redecorating a
room, one can easily get some independent artist to do this work, a
man who has made a study of the decorations on old spinets in
palaces, private mansions and museums. Some artists have been very
successful in converting what was an inartistic piece of furniture as
to size, outline and colour, into an object which became a pleasing
portion of the colour scheme because in proper relation to the whole.
You can always make an ebony or mahogany piano case more in harmony
with its setting by covering it, when not in use, with a piece of
beautiful old brocade, or a modern reproduction.
PLATE XIII
Another side of same Italian Louis XVI salon. The tea-table is a
modern painted convenience, the two vases are Italian pharmacy
jars and the standard for electric lights is a modern-painted
piece.
[Illustration: _Another Side of Same Italian Louis XVI Salon_]