Important 20th Century Design

/

Lot 710
  • 710

Donald Deskey

bidding is closed

Description

  • Donald Deskey
  • Baby Grand Piano

  • with silvered metal tag stamped STEINWAY, the piano board cast STEINWAY & SONS/NEW YORK and STEINWAY & SONS/TRADEMARK/REGISTERED/U. S. PAT. OFF./STEINWAY FOUNDRY CASTING and with firm's numbers, the piano board further stenciled S/EBONIZED/288482 and NA/Q1776, various components branded Q1776

  • lacquered wood, ebony, ivory, and patinated metal
serial no. 288482

Literature

David A. Hanks, Donald Deskey: Decorative Designs and Interiors, New York, 1987, p. 5 (for a period photograph showing the model in situ in Deskey's apartment, 1070 Park Avenue, New York, ca. 1934-1937) and p. 28 (for the model designed for A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933)

Catalogue Note

This sleek piano was originally designed by Donald Deskey for the 1933 A Century of Progress International Exposition in Chicago and represents one of the earliest American modernist piano designs.  Deskey subsequently exhibited the model at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris where it was awarded a gold medal.  According to the Steinway archives, the ''ebony'' piano presently offered was manufactured on June 30, 1937.  The piano was subsequently purchased at the N. Stetson & Company of Philadelphia on December 22, 1939, and has remained in the same family ever since.