Life, 1909-12-02 · page 3 of 80
Life — December 2, 1909 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire** — it's a straightforward advertisement for Kranich & Bach pianos, placed in *Life* magazine. The page promotes the company's upright pianos for children's music education. The two illustrated figures (a woman with a child, and a man at a piano) are generic representations meant to convey respectability and refinement, not specific people or caricatures. The advertising copy emphasizes that quality instruments are essential for proper musical development in children, comparing piano selection to choosing good books. The ad highlights the Kranich & Bach brand's "strictly high-grade" construction and offers "favorable installment terms" and trade-in options for old pianos. This represents typical early-20th-century marketing positioning pianos as markers of cultural sophistication and family status.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
It is as important, musically, for a child to begin piano prac- tice with a good piano as it is to begin reading and studying with good books. To early educate the child so that it becomes familiar with the refinements of perfect tonal quality is the basic element of musical culture. To accustom the delicate and maturing hand of a child to the great possi- bilities of a properly constructed piano, not only facilitates the development of correct technique, but avoids the necessity of subseauently unlearning faults that retard. The Kranich and Bach Standard Upright Piano possesses structural features that place it in a class of its own in the small group of Strictly High-Grade Instruments, and it is extremely important to intending piano purchasers that these exclusive improvements be investigated in the com- parison of relative advantages. Write for pamphlet describi “ISOTONIC” pedal used in our Grands, and th ZYN” metal plate used in our Uprights — our new catalogue will also be forwarded Favorable installment terms. Old pianos in exchange. KRANICH & BACH ‘ew york comicbooks.com