Steinway & Sons Centennial D (1877)

A very rare Steinway & Sons grand piano. This model "Centennial" is relatively unknown, but the predecessor of the current D model. This grand piano was only made by Steinway for 2 years and was the first concert grand piano that Steinway ever made. This version was made for the World Expo in Philadelphia, America. One of the few copies ever made, a real museum piece. Made of beautiful solid oak polished with ebony inlay in the sides and beautiful carving. Special about this grand piano is that the cabinet was made in Leeds, England and the grand piano itself in New York. The keys still have the original ivory key top. A CITES declaration is available for this.

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, the founder of Steinway & Sons, was born on 17/02/1797 in Wolfshagen im Harz, now Langelsheim, Lower Saxony (Germany) and died on 07/02/1871 in New York (USA). Initially he settled in Seesen as a furniture and instrument maker. He had a terrible childhood behind him. Napoleon's armies left a trail of destruction in Germany at the time. The Steinweg's house burned down and several of Heinrich's brothers were killed. As a result of an accident he later also lost his father and other brothers, which meant that he, as the only survivor, was already an orphan at the age of 15.

HE Steinweg built his first table piano around 1825 and in 1850 he emigrated with his family, except for his eldest son CF Theodor Steinweg (1825-1889), to America. CF Theodor Steinweg continued his father's business.

After a period of familiarisation in America, Henry Steinway (HE Steinweg) founded Steinway & Sons in 1853 together with his sons Henry Jr. (Heinrich, 1831-1865) and Charles (Karl, 1829-1865). William (Wilhelm, 1835-1896) and Albert (1840-1877) joined later.
Due to the American Civil War (1861 to 1865), Steinway Hall (a center for art and culture) was not opened until 1866. Piano sales then increased considerably, partly because all concertgoers had to walk through the store before entering the concert hall. Steinway Hall had to close in 1890, because its function as a center for art and culture was taken over by Carnegie Hall.

Many of Steinway's important technical ideas emerged from the intensive contact between CF Theodor Steinweg (Germany) and Henry (jr) Steinway (America). In 1857, Steinway & Sons was granted the first patent, and more than 125 more were to follow, including the cross-string system used in grand pianos (1859), the sturdier cast iron frame and the duplex scale (1872), in which the sounding part of the string is supplemented by the (uniquely sympathetic) part of the string between the bridge and the pins.
This creates a richer overtone ratio in the sound.
In 1865 Henry Jr. and Charles died, after which CF Theodor Steinweg (engineering) gave up his company in Germany to help his father (HE Steinweg / Henry Steinway Sr.), William (commerce) and Albert.

In 1880 Theodore and William began to build a new Steinway factory in Hamburg in a rented building. A few years later they continued in their own factory building that was soon expanded with several branches. In 1889 Theodore died in Braunschweig.

Steinway was doing well until the stock market crash of 1929, but then sales plummeted. In the second half of the thirties, Steinway started producing smaller instruments, after which things improved somewhat.
In 1941, the factory in Hamburg was seized as an enemy object, after which it had to contribute its share to the war industry. In 1943, the factory burned down completely as a result of a bombardment. After 1948, production in Hamburg started up again, but in New York it continued to be difficult.


In 1972, the (until then) family business was sold to CBS-Columbia, which sold it again in 1985 to an investment group from Boston that then established 'Steinway Musical Properties'.
This was sold to Conn-Selmer in 1995; he changed the name to ''Steinway Musical Instruments''. From 1996 the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the name LVB (Ludwig van Beethoven). On September 18, 2013 LVB was acquired by hedge fund Paulson & Company after which it was delisted.