C. F. Theodore Steinway

Biography

C. F. Theodore Steinway, eldest son of Henry Engelhardt Steinway, showed early brilliance, performing as a pianist at age 14 to demonstrate his father's pianos at the 1839 Brunswick fair. He studied acoustics at the Jacobsohn College in Seesen under Dr. Ginsberg, building demonstration models for his teacher's lectures. Remaining in Germany when the rest of the family emigrated in 1851, he ran his own piano factory, moving it to Brunswick in 1859. After his brothers Charles and Henry died, he sold his business and joined Steinway & Sons in New York as the partner in charge of construction. With ample capital and skilled workmen, he researched wood, metallurgy, and chemistry as applied to piano building, and traveled to Germany to be near the physicist Helmholtz, becoming his intimate friend. His research culminated in the Centennial concert grand, featuring the duplex scale, bent-rim case, cupola iron plate, and an improved action. The author recounts personally discussing piano-building problems with him late into the night. Theodore divided his time between Brunswick, where he kept an extensive instrument collection, and New York. He died at Brunswick on March 26, 1889. From Spillane (1890): C. F. Theodore Steinway (Theodore Steinway) was the eldest son of H. E. Steinway. Following the deaths of his younger brothers Henry and Charles in 1865, he sold his business in Brunswick, Germany, and joined the New York firm as a partner that same year, after which Steinway & Sons comprised H. E. Steinway and his sons Theodore, William, and Albert. He died March 26, 1889, in Brunswick, Germany. He was a member of the Royal Academies of Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, and of many other distinguished art societies, and was described as "a practical man of rare acumen in his native sphere," traits the text says the firm's present head possesses in large degree. Theodore Steinway, the eldest son of Henry E. Steinway, founder of Steinway & Sons, was born November 26, 1825, in Seesen, Germany. Along with his brother Charles, he became thoroughly experienced in the piano-making craft in Germany before emigrating to the United States. When the rest of the family left for New York in 1850, Theodore was left behind to settle unfinished business connected with his father's former piano manufactory in Germany, which was later revived.

Highlights

• Developed the duplex scale, bent-rim case, cupola iron plate, and improved action culminating in the Centennial concert-grand piano
• Studied acoustics under Dr. Ginsberg and later became an intimate friend and collaborator of the physicist Helmholtz
• Ran his own piano factory at Seesen and Brunswick before joining Steinway & Sons as the partner in charge of construction
• Was the eldest son of Henry E. Steinway and was left behind in Germany in 1850 to settle his father's former piano-manufactory business.
• Eldest son of H. E. Steinway; sold his Brunswick business and joined the New York firm as a partner in 1865.
• Member of the Royal Academies of Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm and other art societies.
• Died March 26, 1889, in Brunswick, Germany.

Sources

Alfred Dolge, Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. I (1911), pp. 303, 304, 305, 306.

Daniel Spillane, History of the American Pianoforte (1890), pp. 213, 216, 220, 222.

Public domain.