Life, 1908-12-03 · page 41 of 68
Life — December 3, 1908 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward advertisement for Chickering & Sons pianos, a Boston-based manufacturer established in 1823. The illustration shows an elegant parlor room with a grand piano as the centerpiece, surrounded by refined furnishings, portraits, and decorative elements. This reflects the era's association of piano ownership with wealth, culture, and social status. The advertisement's argument is that Chickering's **reputation matters more than a demonstration**, since reputation promises long-term reliability ("lifetime's perfect service"). Prices ranged from $500 for uprights to $650 for quarter grands pianos. For modern readers: this reveals how pianos were luxury status symbols in early 20th-century American homes, marketed to affluent households as both musical instruments and markers of refinement and respectability.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
4 4 4 Ww he Chickering Reputation is of far greater value to you, in purchasing a piano, than the most thorough demonstration; for the demonstration only tells you what the instrument is today, @ The Chickering reputation tells you that the Chickering you buy to-day will be the same Chickering twenty years hence. @ The Chick- ering reputation is your assurance of a lifetime’s perfect service. @ Chickering Uprights, in Chippendale design, at our Boston showrooms, $500; Quarter Grands, $600 and $650. They may be had of our agents in other cities at the same prices with freights and delivery charges added. @€ Our literature will be sent at your request. , Established 1823, Made Solely by CHICKERING & SONS 796 Tremont Street PIANOFORTE MAKERS Boston, Mass. comicbooks.com