Brinsmead Upright Piano with a Black Case and Central Panel Featuring a Crystoleum Image of a Classical Scene

A 1905, Brinsmead upright piano with a polished, black case and central panel featuring a crystoleum image of a Classical scene. The brass candlesticks are in a scrolling whiplash design. Piano has an eighty-five note keyboard and two pedals. The Crystoleum depicts an Arcadian image of figures queueing in line around a well, as others recline nearby. The central figure, stands mournful, dressed in black waiting to fill the urn resting at her feet. Behind her, women in billowing dresses, carry an urns atop their heads on route to the well. In the foreground, a cross-legged, elderly woman spins yarn, beside her, three male onlookers watch the women go by. An inquisitive baby sits on its sleeping mother's knee, playing with her father's face.

A Crystoleum is a photographic format that appeared in the 1880s and was a popular format up to the Great War. The process of crystoleum was a method of applying colour to an albumen print made of silver particles which was then pasted face down to the inside of a concave piece of glass. Once the adhesive was dry, the paper backing of the print was rubbed away, leaving only the transparent emulsion on the glass. The image was then coloured by hand, using oil paints. Another piece of glass was added to the back and this could also be coloured by hand. Both pieces of glass were bound together creating a detailed image. The process was derived from the 18th century mezzotint process. Many examples have not survived owing to their fragile nature.