Expositie van Franse piano's tijdens de wereldtentoonstelling te Antwerpen 1894

This photograph by Th. Lantin captures the French piano exhibition at the Antwerp World Fair. It is a fascinating record of how luxury goods were presented and consumed in the late 19th century. The pianos themselves were complex objects, combining materials like wood, felt, and metal. Each demanded expert labor from designers, joiners, and technicians. The piano was a statement of cultural refinement, an expression of bourgeois taste. Yet, it also represented a potent engine of production. Manufacturers like Pleyel, Wolff & Cie, seen here, used the world's fairs to promote both their products and the national prestige of France. What is really on display, then, is not just pianos, but the power of industrial capitalism to transform raw materials into commodities, and to market them globally. This image reminds us that even objects of beauty are embedded in complex systems of labor and trade.