From Na Úsvitě Nové Doby by Josef Jakub Touzinsky, 1848.

She's "at it," from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

"Monsieu Vadevant leads the concert with a warming-pan," from Dicks' English Library of Standard Works, 1884.

In the key of F, presumably.  From A Little Tour in Ireland by Samuel Reynolds Hole, 1892.

"The piano is a wonder box," from St. Nicholas magazine.

Here's a precursor to Hollywood's favorite fake lounge act, The Lampshades, from Young Americans in Japan by Edward Greey, 1882.

An illustration from The Misfortunes of Elphin and Rhododaphne by Thomas Love Peacock (1897).  The caption reads: "And strikes up 'I'd be a butterfly.'"

Suspense is overrated.  Sometimes it's lovely to have questions answered immediately.  Take the story "Julia's Little Weakness" (from The Lady's Realm, 1900).  What's Julia's little weakness?  The very first sentence illuminates us forthwith: "It was for 'stars.'"  Belated thanks, Philippa Trent, for getting right to it!  (And for beginning her story with a long dash!)

Too few pick up a cornet, and fewer still seize it.  "Norman seized his cornet": To-Day magazine, 1873.

An illustration from an 1886 issue of Punch magazine.  The caption reads: "The New Verb: Banjo, Banjab, Banjat — Banjamus, Banjatis, Banjant!"

"I could have sworn I heard a violin playing 'The Last Rose of Summer.' In waltz time, no less."
—Eugenia Riley, Waltz in Time (1997)

Who ever said a pianist can't support himself?

Did you know that buxom has both an obsolete and an archaic meaning?  Obsolete: compliant, obliging.  Archaic: lively, good-tempered.

An illustration from a 1916 issue of Green Book magazine.  The caption reads: "His fingers ran about the keyboard and seemed to meet her fingers there as before.  She was at his side, her hands crossing his, his fingers lingering on hers.  He turned to clasp her . . . but his arms found only emptiness."

An illustration from an 1897 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine.  The caption reads: "A shaggy artist was maltreating a sonata of Beethoven's."