Edouard Colonna - Pleyel pour Siegfried Bing - "la Maison de l'Art Nouveau" - Piano

Pleyel upright piano presented at the Maison de l'Art Nouveau by Siegfried Bing at the Paris International Exhibition - 1900. Edouard Colonna and the Universal Exhibition - Paris 1900: In 1900, the International Exhibition in Paris offered Siegfried Bing the opportunity to create a modern, typically French decorative ensemble. For this Bing Pavilion, Colonna is in charge of the Salon furniture. The piano, a unique work with lemon wood marquetry, was designed by Colonna and commissioned by Bing from the Pleyel piano factory. Edouard Colonna in museums: - New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris. - Dayton Art Institute, Ohio - The British Museum, London - Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna - Kunst und Gewerbe Museum, Hamburg - Finnish Society of Crafts and Design, Helsinki - Musée de la Musique, Paris Edward Colonna's works are very rare and are therefore rarely marketed. Most of his work having already been sold during the existence of the “Galerie L'Art Nouveau de Bing” Siegfried Bing and Art Nouveau: On 26th December 1895, the German-born art dealer Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) opened a gallery/department store in Paris called Maison Bing, L'Art Nouveau. Here he presented his vision of modern life, breaking the traditional division between autonomous art and visual art. This was done in a revolutionary new style that radically broke with existing ideas about and the use of styles – the inspiration of nature itself became the guiding principle. Collaboration with artists: To achieve this, a direct collaboration or a gallery work was proposed by a group of artists, designers and manufacturers who are now world famous; Henry van de Velde, Edouard Vuillard, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Aubrey Beardsley, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alfred Daguet, Georges de Feure, Eugène Gaillard, Clément Massier and Edward Colonna. Alastair Duncan: The Paris salons, Volume III: Furniture. The report related to the renovation of the Pleyel piano is included. This piano (serial number 123 308) was acquired by the S. A. Esther pianos in a bad condition. It had been bought by a non-well-off family from Hennuyère, for their children from a second-hand dealer who told them that it came from a castle in Brabant. But this piano as its condition was unusable. He stayed a few years in a corner of their living room. Only a major restoration could be made. That was the option: to restore the piano to its original condition, both the instrumental part and the furniture part. Regarding the instrumental (musical) part: classical renovation, namely box spring block, pegs, strings, all the felted parts of the mechanism including the worn heads of hammers. It was not possible to keep the ivory keyboard cover without significantly affecting the aesthetic appearance; it has therefore been replaced by a current synthetic coating. All the work related to the instrumental level was done in the spirit of keeping the characteristics specific to the original Pleyel instruments: settings, sound, touch, harmonization. . . As for the furniture (apart from the keyboard) , this one being very faded (varnished, scratches, various chips) and presenting on one side a strong tear, it was decided to treat it to go towards the recovery of its original appearance. I. e. maintaining all the woodwork and veneers, varnishing and cleaning them, renovating some parts to have their original condition back and varnishing the whole to restore its shine. P. S. : the renovation was partly carried out in the workshop of the S. A. Pianos Esther and partly mainly for the cabinetmaking and varnishing part, in a Polish workshop in Silesia.