1911 Hamburg Steinway Model A Grand Piano
Built in Steinway’s Hamburg, Germany factory · Full restoration planned
Serial number 150117
Finish: Ebony
$75,000
Photos coming soon.
About This Piano
This Steinway Model A, serial number 150117, was built in 1911 at Steinway & Sons’ factory in Hamburg, Germany, and is finished in ebony. It is coming into our shop for a full restoration — the works — and is currently awaiting commissioning, so the restoration has not started yet. Photos and a detailed restoration list will be added as the work gets underway.
The Model A is Steinway’s mid-size grand, about 6′ 2″ (188 cm). Hamburg built the same short-scale Model A design in 1911 that it still builds today. New York took a different path: it switched to a longer 6′ 4½″ A in 1914, and from the 1940s until the mid-2000s it built no Model A at all.
Why Hamburg Steinways Are Special
Steinway & Sons opened its Hamburg factory in 1880, and since then the company has run two factories under one name. The New York factory supplies the Americas, and Hamburg supplies Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. Steinway does not officially sell Hamburg pianos new in North America. To get one, an American buyer has to special-order it through a Steinway dealer, usually at a premium, or buy it in Europe and ship it home. As a result, comparatively few Hamburg Steinways are found in the United States, and pianists and technicians seek them out. Piano Buyer notes that the “fit and finish” of Hamburg pianos has long been reputed to be better than New York’s.
Both factories number their pianos in one shared Steinway serial sequence, which is how we can date this piano to 1911.
For reference, a new Steinway Model A in ebony lists at about $133,100. Piano Buyer estimates a new Hamburg-built Model A (A-188) in ebony polish, bought in Europe and shipped to the US, at about $176,146.
Place in History
When this piano left the Hamburg factory in 1911, William Howard Taft was President of the United States, and Germany was the empire of Kaiser Wilhelm II. That year Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500, the company that would become IBM was incorporated in Endicott, New York, and Chevrolet entered the American car market. Hiram Bingham brought Machu Picchu to the world’s attention, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, and in December Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. In music, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier premiered in Dresden, Stravinsky’s Petrushka opened in Paris, Gustav Mahler died, and Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” swept the country.
Restoration Plan
This piano will receive a full restoration — the works — in our shop by Registered Piano Technician Trevor Nelson. The restoration is awaiting commissioning and has not started yet. We’ll post the detailed restoration list and progress photos as the work moves forward.
$75,000. Please contact us for more information, or to discuss the restoration.
See It in Person
Visit our piano gallery in Lafayette, Colorado, to see this Hamburg Steinway. Call (303) 521-3722 or contact us to set up a time.
