Steinway & Sons Grand Piano: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This grand piano was made by Steinway & Sons in New York, New York, in 1857. It is one of the few known straight-strung Steinway grands, as after the cross-stringing patent of 1859, Steinway & Sons stopped making them. This piano is serial number 1199 and has a compass of AAA-a4, repetition action (probably not original), felt hammers, single-, double-, and triple-string, 2 pedals: una corda and dampers, an iron, single-piece frame, straight-strung, and a rosewood veneer case.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: 1857
• maker: Steinway & Sons
• Object Name: piano
• Physical Description: felt (hammers: material)
• Physical Description: iron (frame: material)
• Physical Description: rosewood veneer (case: material)
• Measurements: overall: 100.3 cm x 136.4 cm x 242 cm; 39 1/2 in x 53 11/16 in x 95 1/4 in
• Measurements: overall: 39 3/4 in x 55 in x 96 in; 100.965 cm x 139.7 cm x 243.84 cm
• place made: United States: New York, New York
• ID Number: MI.74.06
• catalog number: 74.06
• accession number: 310654
• Credit Line: Gift of Steinway & Sons Collection
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.