Steinway & Sons Piano. New York, 1924.

Steinway & Sons Upright Piano. New York. Last quarter of the 19th century.
Hardwoods, marquetry and gilt bronze. Metal harp.
Measurements : 138 x 164 x 73 cm.
Steinway & Sons upright piano, serial number 232314, manufactured in 1882. Made of hardwood, it has front casters. The keyboard rests on stipe legs. The front is decorated with openwork motifs as tracery.
Steinway & Sons was founded in 1853 in New York by German immigrant Heinrich E. Steinweg, who by then had made nearly five hundred pianos. Steinway & Sons was one of the major firms responsible for the development of the modern piano, especially during the forty years following its founding, when the company developed nearly half of the one hundred and twenty-five patents it holds. Steinway's revolutionary designs, as well as the exceptional quality of its workmanship, earned the firm important international recognition from the very beginning. From 1855 it won gold medals at many exhibitions held in the United States and Europe, most notably the Grand Gold Medal of Honor at the Paris Exposition of 1867. Steinway & Sons was the first American company to receive such a medal, and soon became the favorite of many members of the European aristocracy and the world's best pianists. To avoid import expenses, Steinway opened its first European factory in 1880, in the German city of Hamburg. Ten years later, the company obtained its first royal warrant, from Queen Victoria of England. In the following years, Stewinway's client list would include the Prince of Wales and other members of European royalty and nobility. Soon it would also become a supplier to many other European royal houses, including Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain and Sweden, and even in the East, to the Persian Royal House.