November, 1 9 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



3^7 



Louis XVI 



The body is adorned with a graceful scroll of acanthus 



in varying tones of green. These scrolls frame and link 



together the arms of the original thirteen colonies, which 



America is now in the White House, Washington. It was arms, beginning at the right, appear displayed upon shields 



woods and suggested in its low tones the feeling of the 

 woods at twilight. 



One of the most interesting pianos ever made in 



presented to the nation for 

 the White House during 

 Mr. Theodore Roosevelt's 

 administration by a noted 

 American firm of piano 

 makers in commemoration 

 of the fact that it marked 

 the one hundred thousandth 

 piano made by this famous 

 firm, whose commercial ca- 

 reer has done so much to 

 place the United States at the 

 head in the piano industry. 

 The White House piano is 

 said to have cost fully $15,- 

 000. The case was designed 

 by Messrs. Joseph M. Hunt 

 and Richard H. Hunt, and 

 the decorations were by 

 Thomas W. Dewing, the 

 well-known artist. The en- 



of grayish purple in the 

 order in which the colonies 

 adopted the Federal Consti- 

 tution. 



The three American 

 eagles which decorate the legs 

 are overlaid with a solid 

 coat of dull gold powder, 

 which combines effectively 

 with the bright gold of the 

 body part. Shields wreathed 

 in sprays of oak and laurel, 

 carved in high relief, occupy 

 the entire oblong of the case 

 above the legs. Carvings of 

 the music rack and lyre are 

 symbolical of music. The 

 decoration of the entire under 

 side of the lid consists of a 

 graceful composition, the 

 subject portrayed being 



Louis XV piano. Top decoration shown on page 386. 

 tire instrument is inlaid with gold and is mounted upon "America Receiving the Nine Muses." 

 three eagles, half regardant, with outspread wings, stand- This piano, which can be seen in the East Room of the 



ing upon square pedestals draped with laurel wreaths. Presidential mansion on certain days of the week, is one of 

 In form and decoration the piano is distinctly American, the finest instruments, tonally and decoratively, ever made. 



Two views of the White House piano, a gift to the nation 



