Selling Pianos with Pictures

Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century advertisements for pianos, pianists, merchants, music publishers and, above all, for domestic purchases are full of images employed for commercial rather than cultural purposes. This volume examines the commercial characters and significances of how pianos were pictured between the early days of 'modern' marketing to today. During the early 1920s, piano sales peaked in the United States; nevertheless, pianos have continued to be sold even as radios, record players, television sets and electric keyboards increasingly replace them as must-have sources of entertainment and improvement. The market for player pianos, although comparatively short-lived, also provided manufacturers and retailers with opportunities to depict pianos and pictures.