File:Steinway's First Piano - Kitchen Piano (1836, Seesen, Germany) - MIM PHX (2014-02-09 15.10.31 by ksblack99).jpg

Steinway's First Piano - Kitchen Piano

Musical Instrument Museum - Phoenix, AZ

It was a side project that became the start of a dynasty.

In the 1830s, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg
(whose family name was later anglicized
to Steinway) was widely respected as a
master cabinet maker in provincial
German town of Seesen. But in 1836, he
turned his hand to the more ambitious art
of piano making, using the kitchen of his
home to construct an instrument that
would shape his own destiny and that of
his family for centuries to come.

This finely wrought instrument--generally
recognized as the first Stein piano--
not only launched Heinrich Steinweg's
career as a piano maker, it also became
the start of a proud family legacy that
continue to this very day.

Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg first made pianos in the 1820s from his house in Seesen, Germany.^[1] He made pianos under the Steinweg brand until he emigrated from Germany to America in 1850 with his wife and seven of his nine children.^[2] The eldest son, C. F. Theodor Steinweg, remained in Germany, and continued making the Steinweg brand of pianos, partnering with Friedrich Grotrian, a piano dealer, from 1856 to 1865.^[3]

In 1853, Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg founded Steinway & Sons. His first workshop in America was in a small loft at the back of 85 Varick Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.^[4] The first piano made by Steinway & Sons was given the number 483 because Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg had built 482 pianos in Germany. Number 483 was sold to a New York family for $500, and is now on display at the German museum Städtisches Museum Seesen in Seesen,^[5][6] the town in which Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg began his career as a piano maker.^[7] A year later, demand was such that the company moved to larger premises at 82–88 Walker Street. It was not until 1864 that the family anglicized their name from Steinweg to Steinway.^[8]

— English Wikipedia article "Steinway & Sons § History"