January 25, 1883

A new “Music and Drama” report, written by a Montreal newspaperman Arthur J. Graham, accuses Steinway & Sons of financial machinations. According to the report, a “Mrs. H” has paid cash for a new Steinway & Sons piano, chosen at Nordheimer & Company (Steinway & Sons’ dealer in Canada). The piano, delivered to Mrs. H’s house, has had defects in finish and no serial number. Mrs. H had returned the piano to Nordheimer & Company, and a few months later received a different, old piano, a “battle-scarred instrument, varnished to pass for new”, and this time, carrying a serial number. Mrs. H’s husband has forced the dealer to promise in writing that a new Steinway & Sons piano will be personally selected by the dealer, and delivered from New York to his house within a month. When less than a month later the new piano has arrived, Mr. H. for some reason has decided to investigate the route his new piano had taken on its way to Canada, and to his surprise discovered, that the new Steinway has come to him from Hamburg. German pianos are considered as low quality instruments, and the goal of the article is to trigger the suspicion that Steinway & Sons is building “fake Steinway pianos”, using cheap German labor and substandard materials.