Steinway Pianos
Steinway & Sons was founded on March 5, 1853, by the German immigrant Henry Engelhard Steinway and his sons in New York City, the center of the piano-making industry.
Henry, a master cabinetmaker, built his first piano in the kitchen of his Seesen, Germany, home. Known as the “kitchen” piano, this instrument was exhibited for many years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and can now be seen at the factory’s gallery in Astoria, New York.
Over the next forty years the Steinway family developed the modern piano and set the quality standard for these instruments worldwide. Over 120 patented innovations and 1,000 design and construction details are present in the modern Steinway. Some of the most important and historic of these innovations include the combination of a full cast-iron plate with over-stringing. The cast-iron plate replaced reinforced wood construction and allowed for much higher string tension, which, coupled with the Steinway over-strung scale, permits longer bass strings for more volume and better soundboard resonance. This “Steinway System” delivers a fuller, richer sound and sets the standard to which all contemporary pianos are built.
Since the first “kitchen” piano, more than 563,000 Steinway pianos have been produced.