Piano 112

Snapped yesterday in the window of the Steinway showroom in Marylebone Lane, near the Wignore Hall. I almost went in to ask if I would be allowed to photograph this slightly tacky looking object, but decided to settle for the rather unsatisfactory snap from outside included above. A Steinway with golden legs.

Gemini's first choice is a 'Steinway & Sons "Heliconia" ... is a special collaboration between Steinway and the famous French crystal maker Lalique' and his second a 'Louis XV from Steinway’s Special Collection'. Neither Bing nor Google offer much, but I do turn up a Heliconia and it is not one of those.

Gemini then suggests that I might do better on the search key 'Steinway Louis XV Sketch 1020 in Ebony with Gold Leaf'.

This does not turn one up either, but Google does turn up the one above. 'A Majestic and Highly Important Early 20th Century Louis XV Style Gilt Bronze Mounted Marquetry Four Leg Grand Steinway Piano By Maison Jansen' from the Charles Cheriff Galleries of Long Island.

The next episode of the Gemini story starts:

That is exactly how it worked. In the early 20th century, high-end interior design firms like Maison Jansen (often referred to simply as Jansen) acted as "finishers" for luxury goods. They didn't just buy a piano; they treated it as a raw component for a total room design.

The specific piano you likely saw—the one at Charles Cheriff Galleries—is a fascinating example of "industrial-era" collaboration.

In other words, Maison Jansen, just bought the engine part of the piano, then built their own case around it. Whereas Steinway, for the piano snapped above, just put a bit of fancy trim on one of their regular pianos.

Gemini goes on:

Charles Cheriff is a legendary dealer on the Upper East Side (not far from Long Island's "Gold Coast" estates) who specializes in 19th-century "Belle Époque" furniture. The Jansen Steinway is a centerpiece of their collection precisely because it represents the peak of that era's excess.

Maybe POTUS should buy a couple of them: one for his place in Florida and another for the presidential ballroom being tacked onto the White House. Maybe he could persuade a couple of his good friends to gift them.

[This 9,464-square-foot mansion (built in 2000) is located in Old Westbury on Long Island and is listed with Douglas Elliman’s Maggie Keats for $8 million]

On the other hand, the Gold Coast does not seem terribly golden. Back in 2022 you could have the house snapped above for $8m - which does not seem much by the standards of billionaires at all. Or even our own London of today. Perhaps it was a more toney area a hundred years ago, back in the 1920s.

PS 1: Elliman offer lots of pictures at reference 4. With this one from a house in the same price range as that above; just a touch less. But who on earth would want a room looking like this? I don't think it would be POTUS's thing at all. Maybe it would rate some coarse remark on Truth Social.

PS 2: while the FT offers one of their neat graphics. One wonders when our government is going to get back to governing: first they spend weeks on the Mandelson nonsense and now they are going to spend weeks slinging mud at each other. Labour on a suicide mission? My parents, glossing a little, Labour stalwarts both from the 1930s, would not have been impressed at all. What has it all come to?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/10/piano-111.html.

Reference 2: https://www.charlescheriffgalleries.com/.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maison_Jansen. Defunct.

Reference 4: https://www.elliman.com/. 'Where do you want to go? We are leaders in luxury property'.

Group search key: pianosk.