De Keyser, I. 2007. ‘Les collectionneurs belges à la fin du XIX^e siècle’. Musique – Images - Instruments. Revue française d’organologie et d’iconographie musicale N° 9, special issue : Les collections d'instruments de musique 2e partie : 74-101. Paris : CNRS. ISSN: 978-2-271-06527-8.  (PR).

Article in a scientific Journal / Article in a Journal

Some 120 Belgian collectors of musical instruments operated in the field at the end of the XIX^th and the beginning of the XX^th Century. Among them were musicians, amateurs, painters and sculptors, King Leopold II himself and, not to forget, two famous émigrés, Auguste Tolbecque and Adolphe Sax. The greatest collections however are due to three real “organologists”, César Snoeck (1834-1898), François-Joseph Fétis (1784-1871) and Victor Mahillon (1841-1924). Belgian collectors were predominantly present on the Loan Exhibitions in London and on international exhibitions in France and Belgium, which incorporated a section of ancient musical instruments as well. The Belgian economic engagement in the Middle and the Far East and the colonial adventure of King Leopold II not only opened new markets for Belgian industry, but fostered donations of “exotic” musical instruments, especially to the Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments and the Tervuren Congo Museum.

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