The History of Steinway & Sons

Steinway & Sons has been building pianos since 1853. This is the short version of how the firm began, how it grew into the maker whose name is now shorthand for a top-end piano, and why any of it matters if you are buying one.

From Germany to New York

The founder was Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, a German cabinet maker who built his first pianos in the town of Seesen. In 1850 he emigrated to New York with most of his family, anglicised the name to Henry E. Steinway, and in 1853 set up Steinway & Sons in a Manhattan loft with his sons.

The patents that made the name

What set Steinway apart was engineering. Through the 1850s and 1860s the firm took out a run of patents that shaped the modern grand piano. The most important joined an overstrung scale to a one-piece cast iron frame, letting the strings cross over each other for a bigger, richer tone from a given size. Much of what Steinway settled on then is still how grand pianos are built today, and the firm holds well over a hundred patents.

Hamburg, and two factories

The pianos sold, and Steinway needed to reach Europe. In 1880 the family opened a second factory in Hamburg, Germany. Ever since there have been two Steinway factories, New York, now in the borough of Queens, and Hamburg, both building to the same design. Hamburg supplies Europe and most of the world, New York supplies the Americas.

Steinway today

The firm still builds its pianos slowly and largely by hand, from parts it makes itself, and a grand can take the best part of a year to complete. It also owns two cheaper ranges, Boston and Essex, which it designs but has built in Asia, so dealers can offer a Steinway-designed piano lower down the price range.

Why the history matters to a buyer

Two things. Because the design settled so early and changed so little, a well-kept Steinway from decades ago is still a serious instrument, which is why the used market is so strong. And because the parts and the way they go together are particular to Steinway, a rebuild is only as good as the parts used. If you are buying an older one, who rebuilt it, and with what, matters as much as the name on the lid. Our guide to buying a used Steinway goes into that.