Piano History

  • 1.  Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Member
    Posted 02-11-2020 12:27
    I am working on an article or possibly multiple articles for the PTG Journal on a Steinway Style 1 Grand owned by a local retired MD. The story is pretty incredible about how he came across it, purchased it and had it rebuilt. Even more fascinating is the history of the piano itself, who owned it and played it and where it has been. Without giving away the plot I will say that a concert pianist born in the US but trained at the Paris Conservatory owned the piano and we believe he toured Europe with it. At this point in my research I am trying to find any pictures or stories to collaborate he used this instrument on tour. Programs from Concerts just mention that he performed on a Steinway or a Mason & Hamlin in the US.
    The piano is significant because according to the owner Steinway & Sons only made 4 of this Style 1 with a partial plate, exposed block, forward leaning tuning pins, agraffes on all 85 notes. The case is magnificent and the legs and lyre are an example of carving skills rarely seen.
    The concert pianist that owned the piano was the only student of the great Paderewski and his life story is also amazing in that he joined the AEF in World War I, rose to the rank of Major and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his work in Military Intelligence.

    So.... if anyone knows about a good source of  photos, old concert programs with pictures etc. please pm me or post.

    BTW - I think I have located the other 3 Style 1s but more research is needed these are the missing 3

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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    843-325-4357
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  • 2.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-12-2020 04:17
    Hi Jim,

    I don't understand - where did the owner get the information about the rareness of this piano?  We need to be careful about being led down these rosy paths of piano fantasy....the elements you've related which distinguish it are in hundreds, if not thousands of pre-1878 Steinway grands.   

    Regards,

    Bill

    Bill Shull, RPT,  M.Mus.

    Sent from my iPhone



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  • 3.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Member
    Posted 02-12-2020 08:44

    I am the messenger but he told me that this particular style 1 was only one of four made and the information came from Steinway. Steinway also told him that it was delivered to an address in New York which had a service entrance in the back of its location on Park and Madison that was one of the Vanderbuilt Mansions. 

    The Antique Piano Shop in Tennessee stated that the Style 1 was extremely rare. No doubt there may be the same features in hundreds of pre-1878 grands the fact that Steinway told him it was one of four may be what makes it rare. Perhaps the case style & carvings make it rare but I will attempt to get something in writing that bears S&S letterhead & signature  which I believe he has.

    I also have no reason to believe the story about ownership is made up  because the piano was rebuilt at the Steinway factory in the early 1900's and I believe he has details on who owned it at the time.


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  • 4.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-12-2020 11:24
    Jim, I guess my skepticism comes from an experience.  There's a famous hotel in Southern California that has an 1876 Steinway Centennial grand.  The hotel tells a similar story through a sign on the piano and through its docents.  It is one of only 4 Centennials,  it was paraded around the country during the Centennial celebration, etc.  I have examined the history via the log book and archives and found nothing.   The hotel founder's biographer has found nothing.  Nothing has stopped the story though. 

    I know of one technical feature  on this piano - an iron patent pulsator - that has been identified on only three other known pianos.  It is really cool. To me.  But that is not what the lore is about.   The piano was rosewood with has carved serpentine legs and double bead case molding, which some today describe as art case, but was the everyday Steinway grand cabinet.   But take the hotel tour and you'll learn a great fable about "this piano was one of four Centennials ever built, and was paraded throughout the country etc etc."

    Bill



    Bill Shull, RPT,  M.Mus.

    Sent from my iPhone



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  • 5.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Member
    Posted 02-13-2020 10:43
    I agree that the story needs to be vetted more because urban legends abound. There must be some proof lying around but trying to find it is the challenge especially 151 years after the piano was made. A ships manifest listing the piano by serial number and the owners name might be definitive as well as detailed shipping information information. The piano was sent to Steinway for a total rebuild in the early 1900's and the concert pianist would have been the likely owner. Steinway gives out very little information to identify clients other then to say it was owned by a concert pianist. The owner did say it was Steinway that told him that only 4 of this particular style were made whereas it seems like many style 1's where made in a multi-year window. If it is only 1 of 4 what makes it different ? I guess just finding one of anything from 1865 is rare in itself

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    James Kelly
    Owner- Fur Elise Piano Service
    Pawleys Island SC
    843-325-4357
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-13-2020 11:14
    A question I'd ask is what did Steinway mean by "this style?" It is much more likely to refer to the furniture style than the piano design. The fact that it was sent back to the factory for rebuild gives it a far reduced value from the standpoint of history, as it would have been rebuilt to the later standards rather than retain original elements. 

    Story lines behind who owned and who played an instrument are fun to research and give the owner an interesting conversation piece, but don't really provide much of concrete value. Steinway shipped the Horowitz piano around the country many times. Was it still set up the way Horowitz played on it? Of course not. But I, along with thousands of others, can say I played Horowitz' piano, for whatever that is worth. It's worth nothing to me, but for some it has meaning. If it had been left as it last was when Horowitz played it, that would have interested me.
    Fred Sturm
    fssturm@unm.edu
    www.artoftuning.com
    http://fredsturm.net
    "Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire." -Gustav Mahler




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  • 7.  RE: Steinway Style 1 Grand

    Registered Piano Technician
    Posted 02-13-2020 14:10
    Fred,

    Exactly.  Until 1878 "Style" referred to whatever that particular catalog or dealer letter (prior to 1866) said it was.  It was not a technical reference to a scale or basic "model" as Steinway began to do in 1878 (which included a correlation between style letters and numbers at first).  

    I'm grateful for all the online scans of piano catalogs that Antique Piano Shop has put up, but we must be careful not to take their interpretation as reliable.  It's meant to sell pianos, and the information is sometimes inaccurate or incomplete.  

    I won't review the history of the "Style 1."  It's all there in the Kehl/Kirkland book, easily purchased for a very friendly price.

    I'll still produce a history at some point too, complete with photos and discussion.  But the Kehl research in the "Official Guide..." is reliable and well worth owning.

    Bill



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