It may surprise you but a piano is the most requested musical instrument on "Desert Island Discs" - even by The Beverley Sisters. However it is not very easy to carry, and would probably not function too well as a life raft in its present state. Mind you, perhaps the wood could be dismantled carefully and then be reconstructed as a more suitable craft with which to set to sail.
The only thing I can say in its favour is that as it is quite hard to learn to play the piano, and it can be quite dis"chord"ant, so doing so on a far off desert island will at least not disturb your neighbours!
I have to say that if I had to be marooned on a desert island with a piano a "player" piano would be a far better choice as I could close my eyes and convince myself that someone else was there with me, tinkling away.
By the way, the second most requested instrument was a guitar, which is much more to my liking.
Now this card is one of many that were issued by Pernot, who were founded in 1869, in Dijon, an area of France much more known for mustard than for biscuits, so it is perhaps not surprising that the factory also produced mustard. Then, in the 1880s it was bought by two brothers, who were not so keen on the mustard but were really in to biscuits, and it was under their ownership that the international reputation of Pernot Biscuits really took off. However after the Second World War they never really recovered and though the company was bought out in the mid 1960s in less than a decade all production ceased.
We know that this card was printed by [Carlos Joseph] Courmont, who was a lithographic printer, based in Paris, who was founded about 1876, and we know that this card must have been issued after 1896 because in that year he was joined by his brother Emile and they changed the name of the company to Courmont Freres (or the Courmont Brothers), which is what it says right at the bottom of the reverse. They had a huge output, including postcards and posters, and had a contract with the railways as well. Yet somehow they closed down in 1902.
As for the design of this card, well that was by Henri Thiriet, who was obviously a very talented artist, and yet has left almost no trail of who he was. All I have found is that he was born in 1873 and died in 1946.
We are also uncertain as to how many cards comprised the set, and whether there were not two sets, one showing a definite Medieval style (listed as (M) below) and some, like ours, which are more Victorian or Edwardian. Anyway we have tracked down the following :
- Clarrinet
- Guitarre
- Harp (M)
- Harp Gothique (M)
- Luth (M)
- Piano
- Theorbo (M)
- Vielle et Tambour
- Viola d`Amour (M)
maybe you can add some as well?