Piano

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.