Gumbo’s Pic of the Day, August 21, 2015: Old England in Brussels, Belgium

‘Old England’ is a 1899 former department store in Brussels, Belgium, that is an art nouveau showpiece with a superlative black facade all decorated with wrought iron and beautifully arched period windows which contains the MIM collection of musical instruments.

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Originally attached to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with the purpose of demonstrating early instruments to students, the MIM collection was created in 1877 with a collection of a hundred Indian instruments given to Belgian King Leopold II by Rajah Sourindro Mohun Tagore in 1876 and the collection of the celebrated Belgian musicologist FranÇois-Joseph FÉtis, purchased by the Belgian government in 1872 and put on deposit in the Conservatory, where FÉtis was the first director.

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