Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, despite his modest social circumstances and lack of possessions, marries Julianne Thiemer, a daughter of a rich Seesen glove-maker. Shortly before the wedding, Heinrich’s Jewish friend Karl Brand, a son of a local cantor, shows Heinrich a musical instrument of a kind that the young craftsman had never seen before: a pianoforte. Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg builds a copy of Karl Brand’s piano, and gives the new instrument – the first piano he has ever built, its case covered with carved cupids frolicking among flowers – as a wedding gift to his bride Julianne Theimer. By happenstance, just around the time when Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg moves from Goslar to Seesen, to live there with his young wife, the village of Seesen burns to the ground. That tragic event presents Heinrick Engelhard Steinweg with an unexpected opportunity: Seesen now needs skillful woodworkers, and the local Chief Justice permits Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg to establish a business there, notwithstanding the local guild’s law that prevented outsiders from setting up shops in the village.